Max Verstappen does not see himself becoming a team boss after his Formula 1 career. “When you’ve been racing in Formula 1 for years and you decide to quit, I imagine you’re pretty much done with it for a while. I would want to do other things,” he says.
– You play a sort of mentor role for younger drivers on the grid. How does that come about?
“It happens very spontaneously and naturally. Look, if someone asks me something and I find that person very nice, then I have no problem explaining certain things or sharing my perspective. I get along well with someone like Gabriel Bortoleto. He’s just a very nice guy with a good character. You don’t come across that very often. Other young drivers also regularly ask me things. That’s how we interact with each other. It mainly has to do with the fact that we enjoy racing and we don’t pretend to be anything we’re not.”
‘That’s not what I enjoy’
– Where does the mentor role end? I assume you won’t be helping Lando Norris anymore?
“He’s not exactly a rookie anymore. But when it comes to the new guys: at some point, that changes naturally. They gain more experience, form their own opinions, and ultimately, they are primarily reliant on themselves. That’s logical. That’s how it always goes, and that’s how it should be.”
– With your experience as a driver, your mentor role towards other drivers, and your involvement with Verstappen.com Racing, you essentially have the ideal profile of a team boss.
“Haha, but I’m not going to become a Formula 1 team boss. I really don’t want to. If you’re a team boss of an F1 team, you have to live in England or Italy, and I don’t see myself doing that. These are practical objections, but I find such a role too big, much too big. That’s not what I enjoy or aspire to. If you’ve been driving Formula 1 for years and you decide to quit, I imagine you’re also quite done with it for a while. I would then want to do other things. Also racing, but on a smaller scale and in my own way.”
