Verstappen’s tough but fair reasons not to drive for Ferrari in F1

There is something irresistible about the allure of racing for Ferrari, 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 F1 business.

That template was set down by marque founder Enzo Ferrari, the self-styled “agitator of men” who viewed all but his most extraordinary drivers as hired help.

“Ferrari’s expectation of performance exerted a strong force that radiated throughout the organisation, and the drivers were not exempt from it,” wrote the 1961 world champion Phil Hill.

“Rather 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.

“When one of us did win I sensed a certain reluctance on Ferrari’s 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 – 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’s natural destructiveness.”

Lewis Hamilton 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 in terms of pace; and the car itself has proved vexatious at times, often not even a frontrunner let alone a potential winner.

Only this week, team boss Fred Vasseur admitted he potentially underestimated the scale of the challenge of integrating Hamilton into the organisation.

Ahead of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Max Verstappen 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’s tumultuous first season at Maranello.

“They have two drivers contracted for next year, so there is no discussion anyway,” Verstappen told select media including Autosport. “Now, is there a chance? Yes, there are a lot of chances in life for any kind of decision.

“Of 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.

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

“The 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.

“But these cars can be quite complicated at times to fully understand why you’re quick or not, basically.”

Enzo Ferrari with Niki Lauda

Photo by: Ercole Colombo

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.

Even though his cars were absent from the first championship race, the reasons for that cleave to the essence of the brand’s status – 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’s travel to the UK.

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’t in a position to give them a winning car. Not Verstappen.

“I think Ferrari is a massive brand,” he said. “All the drivers, they see and they picture themselves there, ‘I would like to drive for Ferrari.’ But I think that’s also where the mistake comes, just to drive for Ferrari.

“If 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.

“And 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.”

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 “fix your fucking car (and I might drive for you)”.