During the traditional Thursday FIA press conference, Max Verstappen paid a loving tribute to his father, Jos. An hour later, he continued with a playful remark in the Dutch media session. “If my father were the team boss at McLaren, there would be no rules: just full throttle.”
He has six more races and three sprint races to catch up with World Championship leader Oscar Piastri and his closest pursuer and McLaren teammate, Lando Norris. Max Verstappen acknowledges that it’s not an easy task, but he and his employer Red Bull have not ruled out a fifth world title. “Otherwise, you might as well not race,” he believes.
At McLaren, which won the constructors’ title in Singapore two weeks ago, they are not at ease despite their substantial lead over Verstappen. The so-called ‘papaya rules’, where Piastri and Norris are allowed to race hard but fair against each other, have recently caused some friction. Through various interventions from the pit wall, the team tries to orchestrate as fair a fight as possible. In Singapore, Piastri questioned the value of this, after he was nearly driven into the wall at the start by his English colleague.”
“It’s hard for me to judge whether a particular driver is being favored or not,” says Max Verstappen. “Look, I don’t know what’s being said behind closed doors at McLaren. But if you leave the door ajar, as in Singapore, you get these kinds of situations. McLaren has somewhat brought this upon themselves by trying to treat the drivers as equally as possible.” He himself, according to Verstappen, ‘would never have let it come to this’. “I also don’t think we would have been so close in terms of points. You just have to try not to get into such a situation.”
Because, in his view, equal treatment is simply difficult to orchestrate. “A championship never runs one hundred percent fairly,” claims the world champion. “Sometimes you have a bad pit stop, sometimes an engine breaks down… You can hardly balance that out, at least that’s my opinion. Then you sometimes get disgruntled faces.”
A sensational situation like the one now at McLaren, Verstappen assures, would never have happened under the direction of his father Jos. “I think he would be a very good team boss. He can sometimes be a hothead, but I think it would be good for many people to get a kick in the pants once in a while.” He laughs: “Figuratively speaking, of course. My father would fit well in Formula 1, one hundred percent. He just doesn’t want that: then you’re away from home so much… He’s already done that with me and it’s just not doable with the family at home.”
There’s one thing Verstappen is sure of, if his father were to wield the scepter at McLaren. With a wink: “I know exactly what my father is like: there would be no rules. Just go full throttle.”
