DOHA, Qatar – Max Verstappen has expressed his opinion on McLaren’s decision not to implement team orders in their fight for the championship. The Dutch driver stated that he would not accept being relegated to a secondary role in favor of his teammate.
“I would have told them to go to hell,” Verstappen said about the hypothetical situation before the Qatar Grand Prix, where he has the opportunity to take the battle for the title to the last race of the season.
Max VerstappenVerstappen’s outstanding performance has made him an unexpected contender for the championship, competing against McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
After Verstappen’s victory and McLaren’s double disqualification in Las Vegas, Verstappen and Piastri are 24 points behind Norris before the penultimate round.
McLaren’s decision to allow fair competition between its drivers has been a topic of conversation throughout the year. The team reiterated that it would not change its position as long as both drivers had mathematical chances of winning the championship, as is the case with Piastri.
When asked if he was surprised by this decision and if it complicated his chances, Verstappen replied with a smile:
“No, it’s perfect, I think!”, he said.
Max Verstappen
Then, he defended the decision, arguing that no driver who aspires to win a world championship would accept that situation.
“I think you can’t do a better job than to let them compete. Why suddenly now would you say that Oscar is no longer allowed to fight? I mean, if they told me that, I wouldn’t show up. I would have told them to go to hell. So yes, if you’re a real winner and a racer as a driver, then you go for it. I mean, even if you’re behind, what’s the point of showing up? Otherwise, you can easily label yourself as a number two driver, which I think he doesn’t want to be.”
Max Verstappen
Verstappen added:
“I know I’m tied on points with Oscar. There’s still a lot to do [to be champion]. But I think it should be like that, that they are free to compete and, hopefully, we can have a great battle until the end.”Max Verstappen está empatado en puntos con Oscar Piastri y a 24 puntos del líder Lando Norris.Verstappen’s comeback has been as remarkable as Piastri’s decline in the last months of the season.
In early September, Piastri won Verstappen’s home race, the Dutch Grand Prix, ahead of the Red Bull, while Norris retired due to a car problem.
Piastri left Zandvoort with a 34-point lead over Norris and 104 points over Verstappen, a disadvantage that he has managed to overcome in subsequent races.
When asked if he ever imagined still being in the fight now, he said:
“No, personally no. I mean, probably after that race, when I got home, I thought, that’s it. We’re retiring from the championship. But after that, we had a very good turnaround. We definitely understood the car a bit better, put upgrades on the car. So yeah, overall, along with some mistakes on the other side as well and us maximizing quite a few results, it meant we’re here. And I’m happy with that. I would have been a bit happier if we’d had a better first half. But that’s life. You can’t go back in time and then change it. Overall, now until the end, we’ll just try to do the best we can.”
