Max Verstappen has had a good enough start to his F1 career and looks on track to become one of the greats of our sport.
His impressive win at Austria last weekend was testament to his exceptional driving skills.
He has been pretty impressive with his aggressive style of driving, something that has brought him accolades and criticism.
In the lead up to the British GP, Verstappen was quizzed about a possible switch to other forms of Motorsport.
With Alonos winning the Le Mans a few weeks back, the question was obviously about Le Mans and if Verstappen would consider opting for it.
The Dutchman said that he would consider Le Mans only when he is old and slow which was a massive dig at Alonso.
“I think that [looking outside of F1] mainly happens with drivers who are not winning,” Verstappen said.
“At the end of the day being unable to win isn’t nice and winning gives you the motivation to keep going.
“Fernando has not been in the position to win for the last few years, and that probably makes you want to try different things – he went and won Le Mans, which must be an amazing feeling, and good for him.
“My Dad [twice F1 podium-finisher Jos] had the same. He was in F1 and not winning, and eventually there comes a point when your motivation just disappears, and it’s killing you from the inside.
“When you have the best car on the grid, everybody can win with that car. I think any F1 driver from the last four years could have won in the Mercedes and I think everybody knows that.
“You don’t see Lewis [Hamilton] going off and doing these other things because he is in a winning position and doesn’t need to go anywhere else to get that feeling. It’s also the same for me. I’m in a position to fight for Grand Prix wins here and my motivation is very high, so I don’t want to go off and do Le Mans or IndyCar or whatever right now.” he added.
Verstappen also spoke about Red Bull’s engine switch from Renault to Honda and how it would affect Red Bull’s chances of winning the F1 title next season.
“I think if you are fighting against Mercedes and Ferrari you need to have a factory treatment, because that’s what they are,” he said.
“They will try to optimise everything for any race weekend and of course we would like to have the same, and from next year it will be like that with Honda.
“The team took the decision to change [from Renault], and of course they consulted me as it’s my future too. But the team makes the decision and we’ve been talking about it for a long time and seen a lot of GPS data. The possibilities are a lot bigger working with Honda and they want to show the world that they can build a good engine.
“Of course, we don’t know the full story of what happened when Honda was with McLaren, why the engine didn’t work or why the team wasn’t performing. It’s good this year for Honda to work with Toro Rosso and to learn and keep developing, which should put us in a good position for next year.
“We just need more horsepower because right now, our car is very strong. We probably have the best car, we’re just waiting for the best package.” he concluded.
