Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner has started his groundwork to make sure the racing prodigy Max Verstappen stays with the team for the long haul. He believes Verstappen can build a team around him and reap the benefits of staying with the same group for a long time.
Verstappen is contracted with Red Bull until 2019. His future beyond that has interested both the big teams, Mercedes and Ferrari. But Horner thinks instead of joining Vettel or Hamilton, Verstappen has better chances if he stays with the Milton Keynes outfit.
Horner says “I think he can see the strength and depth of the team. He feels comfortable in the team. He’s the youngest grand prix winner, he’s the youngest double winner, he’s the youngest points scorer.
“And Lewis is pretty set at Mercedes, Seb has signed for three years at Ferrari. The obvious thing is to build a team around you. But it’s down to us to provide him with a competitive car.”
Will it be easy for Verstappen to fight a race while being on the same team as Vettel or Hamilton, Horner said: “That’s a question only he can really answer.
“We all want to be in a competitive position, and I think that the way we’ve developed this chassis this year, we’ve put a serious amount of performance on the car, and we’ve out-developed our opposition from our starting point to being grand prix winners on merit. We need to keep that trajectory going.”
Testing year
2017 season has been a trying year for Red Bull and Verstappen. Horner believes the hard lessons learnt this year will be character building for Verstappen. The Dutchman was forced to retire in seven races out of 16 this year so far.
Had they not encountered the mechanical issues and the start accidents, Verstappen would have been third in the driver’s standing instead of sixth, Horner added.
“There were so many races this year when he was in a fantastic position to achieve big results.
“He’s had four mechanical issues, all engine problems. If you look at the points lost, he should be sitting a pretty close third in the championship at the moment.”
“Credit to him that at such a young age he hasn’t let frustration boil over, he’s kept his head down, he’s kept plugging away, and as I always said, when it comes right for him, it’s going to come right in a big way. And that’s exactly what happened in Malaysia. He drove a great race there, with no issues.”
This is Verstappen’s third year in F1 and his performance when compared to his experience has been “phenomenal”, according to Horner.
“It’s quite astounding that he’s only just turned 20. Just look at the following he has in F1 now. He’s one of the most, if not the most popular driver in F1.
“I think he’s growing in all areas. He has so little experience in car racing per se that every weekend he’s learning and getting stronger.
“There’s no shortcut to experience. He’s now close to completing his third grand prix season, and you look at the level he’s performing at, it’s phenomenal, and what’s exciting is what the future holds for him.”
