David Coulthard saw how Max Verstappen turned the Nürburgring upside down last weekend with a spectacular 24-hour debut. The Dutchman set up his own team in recent months and prepared optimally for the endurance classic. However, due to a technical malfunction, Verstappen missed out on the victory. Still, Coulthard can draw an important conclusion after this new adventure: “He stays with Red Bull.”
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Due to the inconsistent start of Red Bull’s Formula 1 team this season, there was almost immediate speculation about Max Verstappen’s future. Will the four-time F1 champion make a move to McLaren, Mercedes, or Ferrari? “A few episodes ago, we were still speculating a bit about Max (Verstappen, ed.) and what his future would look like,” Coulthard began in the Up To Speed podcast. “But this weekend, one thing became very clear to me: Verstappen stays with Red Bull.”
‘Can be himself’
The Scot explained: “Max is not going anywhere because there is no other F1 team where he can truly show who he is. He can’t do that at McLaren, not at Ferrari, and also not at Mercedes, even though in theory he could drive there. That has everything to do with the enormous investments a team must make in one individual driver. Red Bull does that very well.”
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According to Coulthard, it is in Red Bull’s nature to let a star driver excel, even outside Formula 1. “Honestly, that – in the spirit of the late Dietrich Mateschitz, the founder of Red Bull – is exactly how the team is set up,” he continued. Coulthard himself drove four seasons for the Austrian racing stable and recalls an important conversation with the Red Bull founder. “Before I signed with the team, I asked what he expected from me. He said: ‘Be yourself.’ And Max is himself. That’s why we can drop the speculation from a few weeks ago. At this moment, Max will stay with Red Bull for the rest of his career.”
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