Max Verstappen has insisted that being team-mates with Lewis Hamilton “would never work”, ahead of this weekend’s 2023 season finale.
Hamilton potentially racing for Red Bull has been a huge talking at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, after Christian Horner revealed that the driver’s father spoke to him over a potential switch.
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for Verstappen to be asked over whether he’d be in favour of Hamilton joining him at the Milton Keynes-based team, to replace Sergio Perez.
The three-time World Champion didn’t see much point in discussing the possibility, as he openly admitted that it would simply “never work”.
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Verstappen believes it’s better for him and Hamilton to be in different teams, so that multiple teams are competing for victory.
“It would never work anyway,” Verstappen told The Telegraph. “For sure we would be trying to beat each other.
“But I think it’s also good to have us in different teams. For me, the important thing is that our rivals make sure they’re competitive enough to battle it out.
“Because otherwise it doesn’t matter who you put next to each other, there is only one car winning the championship again. And that’s not what you want as a fan.”
The 26-year-old has a chance this weekend to claim his 19th win of the season, something which would set a ridiculous benchmark to beat in the future.
A victory on Sunday would mark the fourth year in a row that Verstappen has been victorious at the Yas Marina Circuit, whilst it’d also mean that he’s won 86.4 per cent of the races this campaign.
Verstappen has simply been unstoppable since the current regulations were introduced, with him having won 32 races since the start of 2022.
Similarly, to last season, 2023 hasn’t seen a title fight, something the reigning World Champion isn’t concerned about.
“I mean, yeah, of course it would be great for the sport [to have a closer title fight],” Verstappen said.
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“I can understand that. But at the end of the day, I also think about myself, and I want to win more.
“Once you’re in that position of dominance, you just want to try to win more. That’s the truth. And that’s how it’s been in the past as well with other teams when they have had the upper hand.
“So it would be a bit unfair to say, now that I’m winning, ‘Oh, it’s fair for the sport if it’s all equal’, you know what I mean? I’ve also been in that position where, you know, I wanted to win, but we couldn’t. We just needed to work harder and try to be better.”