{"id":114599,"date":"2025-09-04T18:38:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T18:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/114599\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T18:38:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T18:38:46","slug":"theres-one-tough-but-fair-reason-why-max-verstappen-wont-drive-for-ferrari-in-f1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/114599\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s one tough but fair reason why Max Verstappen won\u2019t drive for Ferrari in F1"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is something irresistible about the allure of racing for Ferrari<\/a>, regardless of the considerable baggage which often comes with it. Pressure, infighting, and relentless media scrutiny come freighted with all that passion, emotion, and the best company cars in the Formula 1 business.<\/p>\n

That template was set down by marque founder Enzo Ferrari, the self-styled \u201cagitator of men\u201d who viewed all but his most extraordinary drivers as hired help.<\/p>\n

\u201cFerrari\u2019s expectation of performance exerted a strong force that radiated throughout the organisation, and the drivers were not exempt from it,\u201d wrote the 1961 world champion Phil Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than the race being a culmination of a team effort to win, there was a feeling instead as if you, the driver, had been reluctantly entrusted with this gem of a machine, this fruit of genius, and hopefully your natural dunderheadedness would not destroy it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen one of us did win I sensed a certain reluctance on Ferrari\u2019s part to share the laurels with the driver, to pat him on the back and thank him for a job well done. It was more like Ferrari felt the victory was doubly his \u2013 he had not only managed to build a car that was better than all the other cars, but a car that was also good enough to foil even his driver\u2019s natural destructiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton<\/a> has operated under considerable pressure this year and it is fair to say that expectations have not quite been met on both sides. Aside from that sprint race win in China he has yet to establish himself ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc<\/a> in terms of pace; and the car itself has proved vexatious at times, often not even a frontrunner let alone a potential winner.<\/p>\n

\"Lewis <\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Clive Rose \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Only this week, team boss Fred Vasseur admitted he potentially underestimated the scale of the challenge of integrating Hamilton into the organisation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the Italian Grand Prix<\/a> at Monza, Max Verstappen<\/a> was asked about Ferrari, since that is one of the few leading teams with which he has not been linked, and for his views on Hamilton\u2019s tumultuous first season at Maranello.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have two drivers contracted for next year, so there is no discussion anyway,\u201d Verstappen told select media including Motorsport.com. \u201cNow, is there a chance? Yes, there are a lot of chances in life for any kind of decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, at the moment that is not on the horizon, but who knows? I don’t even know how long I’m driving in Formula 1, so there are still a lot of unknowns for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s always very difficult to know what is going to happen, right? I cannot look into how he [Hamilton] was operating at Mercedes<\/a>, how he feels personally, what is going on also in the [Ferrari] team right now. I don’t have any information on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is, he joined a team that already has a very strong driver with Charles [Leclerc], so it’s never going to be easy to immediately go in there and start beating your team-mate who is well integrated, knows the team very well, speaks the language.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut these cars can be quite complicated at times to fully understand why you’re quick or not, basically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enzo Ferrari carved out his reputation on the ultra-dangerous racetracks of the pre-war era. His eponymous team has been part of the fabric of the world championship since the first season in 1950.<\/p>\n

Even though his cars were absent from the first championship race, the reasons for that cleave to the essence of the brand\u2019s status \u2013 even if Ferrari was very much living a hand-to-mouth existence at the time. If you visit the Silverstone Museum you can see the correspondence between Enzo and the Royal Automobile Club in which they failed to reach an agreement on how much the RAC should subsidise Ferrari\u2019s travel to the UK.<\/p>\n

Such is the magic of Ferrari that many people lose their heads over it, and even sagaciously career-minded grand prix drivers have gone to Maranello even when the team isn\u2019t in a position to give them a winning car. Not Verstappen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Ferrari is a massive brand,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the drivers, they see and they picture themselves there, \u2018I would like to drive for Ferrari.\u2019 But I think that’s also where the mistake comes, just to drive for Ferrari.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I would ever want to go there, I don’t go there just to drive for Ferrari, I go there because I see the opportunity to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if you win with Ferrari, that’s even better. And that’s I think where you shouldn’t let yourself get guided just because of the emotions and passion of a brand, you need to go there because you feel that is the right place to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could that be taken as a coded message by Ferrari? Perhaps Verstappen, in the words of his old boss Christian Horner to Toto Wolff, is saying \u201cfix your fucking car (and I might drive for you)\u201d.<\/p>\n

Photos from Italian GP – Thursday<\/p>\n

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\"Charles<\/p>\n


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In this article<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is something irresistible about the allure of racing for Ferrari, regardless of the considerable baggage which often…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,53953,831,372,6537,30248,3006,371,101,55138,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-114599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-f1-italian-grand-prix-2025","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-italian-gp","tag-max-verstappen","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports","tag-thereu2019s-one-tough-but-fair-reason-why-max-verstappen-wonu2019t-drive-for-ferrari-in-f1","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}