Max Verstappen says he is confident he will not need to move over for team mate Sergio Perez in Interlagos this weekend to support his championship position.
Verstappen has already clinched this year’s world championship title while Perez lies a distant second, 251 points behind his team mate. However Lewis Hamilton remains a threat to Perez over the final three rounds of the championship, sitting 20 points behind the second Red Bull.The situation is similar to the one the Red Bull team mates found themselves last year, when Perez was just five points ahead of Charles Leclerc heading into the Brazilian round. But when Verstappen refused a team order to move over for Perez on the final lap of the grand prix after he had been allowed through by his team mate to attack Fernando Alonso, Perez was left fuming at the world champion.
“It shows who he really is,” Perez said of his team mate after team boss Christian Horner apologised to him over the radio on the cooldown lap.
The team mates patched up their relationship before the final round in Abu Dhabi. But heading into Interlagos this weekend, Verstappen says he feels confident he will not need to move over for his team mate this weekend.
“At the end of the day, I think that it shouldn’t always matter on me to get the points,” Verstappen said. “But I’m confident in Checo, that he can stay ahead, because I do think that, on average, we have the faster car.”
Verstappen says that the events of last season are unlikely to recur again this weekend after the team learned from the situation that played out last time they visited Sao Paulo.
“I think also last year, it wasn’t really well spoken about before we got into the race weekend,” Verstappen explained. “But let’s just hope that we don’t get into that situation, I think is better for everyone.”
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Marvin The Martian (@marvinthemartian)
3rd November 2023, 12:19
yeah, because that would mean doing the opposite of what he did last year! Apparently he’s told everyone before!
proud_asturian
3rd November 2023, 12:30
Because he knows Perez is finished already and doesn’t have a prayer!!!
Sham (@sham)
3rd November 2023, 12:52
This relies on Perez being close enough to Verstappen for him to do anything to help.
Seems unlikely, really.
Zann (@zann)
3rd November 2023, 13:24
there’s generally not much feelgood around Max is there, he’s just not empathetic. But it would be a little bit cheating, in a way, for Checo to get a result he hasn’t earned himself. I mean the points are supposed to be a measure of their own achievements
Ludewig
3rd November 2023, 13:53
@zann
I don’t think that it is fair to hold this against Max, as a ton of drivers want their teammate to jump out of the way when it suits them, but somehow don’t move aside or even give enough room when their team mate is faster and wants to pass. And this includes drivers that many see as being very nice, like Leclerc, Gasly and Vettel.
To be honest, I think that you are just rationalizing a visceral dislike.
Zann (@zann)
3rd November 2023, 14:55
i don’t know about visceral. I don’t find him empathetic – he doesn’t normally show much interest in anybody else does he? Or even any thing apart from racing. I’m a bit suspicious about his attitude to Lewis, tho he doesn’t say much that’s generous about anybody else either. But I’m not holding this issue against him, i’m saying exactly that he’d be right not to gift Checo points he hasn’t earned, this year. Last year, there was a deal that he broke, that wasn’t likeable was it. So, it’s about values
SadF1fan
3rd November 2023, 15:52
He shows alot of interest for his friends and for his family, he is generally very well liked by everyone in the simracing community, the drivers and his teams.
Max’s opinion on letting by teammates has been known since 2016 when he was driving for Toro Rosso, it’s not happening.
Ludewig
3rd November 2023, 20:35
@zann
When I observe him, I don’t see a person who lacks empathy. He asks his fellow drivers about their experiences after the race. He congratulates them. He celebrates with the team after a success. In one of the Red Bull videos (with monster trucks) I’ve seen him coach and talk up Yuki. After Max beat Yuki, Max said that it was a small gap rather than gloating. I’ve seen him jump in and defend other drivers during interviews or be visibly annoyed about the questions that other drivers get asked (typically justly so). This speaks both to him paying attention to what his fellow drivers get asked and say (which I think Alonso and Max seem to do more than the other drivers) and caring about them being treated fairly. When Penelope (his partner’s daughter) demands attention during his online racing, which he livestreams (and which I think he sees as his 2nd job), we seem him acting completely normally by kindly asking her to not mess up his racing when he is doing that, but playing a bit with her when he can. And in both situations, he interacts on her level and respects her emotional maturity. People who truly have very little empathy often seem to show this very clearly by not being able to treat children as children.
Max and Lewis clearly do not get along, but disliking someone is not a sign that someone lacks empathy, but that they have a clashing personality.
So where is the actual evidence of him lacking empathy? Having singular interests is not at all a sign of that, just like having broad interests doesn’t that someone has empathy, rather than a short attention span, a lack of perfectionism, ADHD or whatever else causes people to not want to get really good at one thing.
There is really only one driver on the grid whose empathy seems suspect to me, and that is the son of a team owner. And there is one driver whose empathy level seems very high and probably at a level that is bad for his career, which is Russell.
I don’t blame anyone for not liking Max’ personality, type of humor, directness, unwillingness to deceive or other traits, but I do think that it is unfair to claim that it’s a personality fault, when it’s mostly just a preference. And a lot of these things are just part of Dutch culture, so it’s probably a preference that highly depends on the culture in which you grew up in.
Nick T.
3rd November 2023, 17:42
Vettel jumped out of the way in 2018 in Brazil for Raikkonen. And Leclerc has always seemed willing (if anything, it’s Sainz that has ruined many races for Leclerc arguing). Gasly is a petulant brat. So, he shouldn’t be the standard. Max is amazing, but he’s even more selfish than is standard for the GOATs, which were usually selfish to begin with.
The only understanding I’ll give Max is that Jos is a literal psychopath. It’s not surprising he seems to lack much empathy or emotions (besides times like post-2018 quali in Mexico, when he shows anger, you don’t see much emotion ever) given his upbringing. It was probably developed as a defense mechanism.
Nick T.
3rd November 2023, 17:45
For the record, I don’t think Max should be going out of his way to help Perez for Perez’s sake. It should be for his team’s sake. Having a 1-2 in the WDC seems really important to them.
David (@nvherman)
3rd November 2023, 13:55
@zann at least he is honest. Plus, if Verstappen is in with a sniff of a victory, why would he give that up?
T
3rd November 2023, 16:15
Even before masi’s decision, Max was only able to close the large gap to Lewis in AD21 thanks to checo effectively relegating himself to a moving chicane on the track and then immediately retiring the car so what’s this faff about unearned points?
Zann (@zann)
3rd November 2023, 17:21
you’re missing an F i think :)
MacLeod (@macleod)
3rd November 2023, 13:33
Perez just need to be in front of Max otherwise he isn’t move over …. he likes winning too much….
Sihrtogg (@sihrtogg)
3rd November 2023, 15:10
C’mon Max, winning a GP is not a challenge for you anymore. Keeping PER ahead of HAM though, now that’s a proper tough one!
SteveP
3rd November 2023, 15:25
Perez only needs to finish each race session a position or two behind Hamilton and not leak more than 5 points per race weekend on average.
DaveW (@dmw)
3rd November 2023, 15:30
When you put it that way it seems he’s guaranteed to lose P2.
SteveP
3rd November 2023, 19:34
Starting from 9th on the grid isn’t going to help.
Of course with rain expected you’d think RBR would have had him following Max down the pit lane hanging on the rear end.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th November 2023, 1:29
Yes, I don’t think they’re gonna be in a position where verstappen actually can let perez by, but judging by what he said I really doubt if that happened he would be very compliant.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th November 2023, 1:30
He’s just hoping it doesn’t happen cause then he won’t have to do something he can’t stand like letting perez by, and realistically speaking, perez is some points ahead of hamilton, so for perez to need those points he would have to be behind hamilton and by enough points that coming 2nd with say hamilton 3rd wouldn’t cut it, in that case verstappen might be asked to let him by.