Unsavoury Verstappen has echoes of Ronaldo in Red Bull F1 row

Max Verstappen's refusal to play the F1 team game in Brazil and his petulant radio remarks call to mind another sporting great with a difficult reputation

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Verstappen set out a clear stance on Brazil team radio

Red Bull

After all they’ve done for him. Of all the petty, selfish acts. This is supposed to be a team game, isn’t it? Who does he think he is? It’s as if he reckons he’s a cut above everyone, including the boss, who he’s put in a terribly awkward spot. As for the petulance of his outburst, someone of such skill and standing should be ashamed. That he won’t be says it all about the kind of person we’re looking at. How the fans now respond will be telling.

Yes, Ronaldo really has burnt his bridges at Man United, hasn’t he? What an own goal.

You thought I was referring to Max Verstappen? Well… it occurs there is the odd parallel or two this week. On the one hand, the preening Portuguese footballer has trashed his team, his club and his manager in a scandalous interview that has tarnished his gilded reputation as a Manchester United legend, perhaps forever. He’s tossed away old friendships and shown a remarkable lack of grace for a man whose towering talents have placed him among his sport’s greatest players – even if he’s closer to Maradona on the slippery sliding scale of personal class than up the other end with the likes of Pele or Lionel Messi.

On the other hand we have Verstappen. OK, so his actions in the closing stages of the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday weren’t quite so incendiary. Not quite. They are much more likely to blow over, especially over the winter break, and unlike Ronaldo Verstappen isn’t about to be stripped of the Red Bull club shirt. But his choice to ignore a team order to help out Sergio Perez when he had absolutely nothing significant to lose, and then offer a stroppy, immature response on the radio that was purposefully cryptic for most of the watching world, was bang on a par with the behaviour we’ve come to expect from Ronaldo. And the Verstappen own goal on Sunday was as equally intentional.

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Red Bull’s double world champion refused to hand back sixth to Perez

Red Bull

How significant it proves to be remains to be seen. Predictably, Christian Horner moved to downplay the storm. “We have discussed the matter between Max and Checo internally and we go into Abu Dhabi as a team to do the very best that we can to help Checo achieve second place in the championship,” he whitewashed on social media.

“The bigger discussion for us is our pace this weekend and we’ll be looking to resolve that in Abu Dhabi. We work as a team and race as a team, and it is that ethos that has seen us gain such great success this season and will continue to drive us forward.”

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Did Monaco F1 crash cause Perez and Verstappen team order row?

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One suspects he offered such platitudes to Perez and uttered such sentiments to his double world champion. But would Verstappen have listened? A waste of breath, surely. The ruthless streak is a big part of what makes the Dutchman so devastatingly effective, of course. He’s driven, selfish and out for himself, much like other F1 ‘Galacticos’ (hello, Fernando Alonso). But talk about biting the hand. Those actions on Sunday and his subsequent outburst amounted to a direct challenge to Horner’s authority, just weeks after the ultimate boss Dietrich Mateschitz passed away. The timing is interesting in that regard.

So, a couple of questions: was Verstappen that far out of order, or are we at risk of making too much out of it? After all, it’s only for second in the championship – “first of the losers” as dear old Ron Dennis liked to put it. Secondly, shouldn’t have Ferrari made the same request of Carlos Sainz Jr for the benefit of team-mate Charles Leclerc, as the latter requested with some force on more than one occasion in the closing stages at Interlagos?

Let’s take that second one first. As Martin Brundle said in his Sky F1 commentary, giving up a podium for third is a whole different story in terms of sacrifice over a mere sixth place. Especially when the sixth place is figuratively meaningless for a driver who won his second crown many weeks ago. Verstappen’s ‘sacrifice’ would have barely grazed such a definition, but that wasn’t true for Sainz with a podium at stake. These situations are not the same thing – although Leclerc might well feel differently about that. It’s a column for another day, perhaps, but his admirable public patience with Ferrari must be running dangerously thin after this disaster of a season. Ignoring his request, or at least dismissing it as too risky, could be part of an accumulation of resentment that might one day boil over.

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Perez has found little payback for playing the team game

Red Bull

Back to Verstappen. As for overplaying the significance, I’m not so sure. Surely Perez will think again when it comes to putting aside his own self-interest the next time Red Bull asks him to fall on his sword for Verstappen’s benefit. Think about how unhappy he was when the team called on his subservience as early as the Spanish Grand Prix this year, when in theory he was just as much a title contender. No, he won’t forget Sunday.

As for Horner, and more significantly, like Erik ten Hag it’ll be hard to just let this one go. Although it must be said the situation is a damn sight more clear cut for the United boss, because Ronaldo’s interview was calculated with an obvious purpose: to abruptly sever his second spell at the club. Job done, I should think. Verstappen, in contrast, has no wish to leave Red Bull (as far as we know) and the team definitely won’t want to lose him, especially over something so petty. He’s too good. Driver and team have too many titles to win together over the rest of this decade, they are too invested in each other for this little spat to become so damaging.

And yet it’s also true that Verstappen has risked it all by his actions on Sunday. Every member of the Red Bull team, at the circuit and back in Milton Keynes, is fully aware of what he’s like, and most probably love him for his headstrong, chip-off-the-old block Verstappen vim. But this time he clearly and without any hint of regret put himself ahead of the greater need – just like Sebastian Vettel did in his battles with Mark Webber. You remember, “Multi-21” and all that. Vettel’s selfishness back then didn’t stop his run of astonishing success at Red Bull, but it did create unnecessary angst, especially for Horner whose authority was again challenged as it has been this week.

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Red Bull boss Horner found himself having to diffuse the situation

Red Bull

When Vettel’s star began to fade, up against Daniel Ricciardo at the start of the hybrid era, perhaps sympathy for such a shrewd operator was in shorter supply than it might have been. Those moments with Webber did damage Vettel, and I’d wager this one will too for Verstappen. Certainly in terms of how he is perceived both inside and outside the team.

One way or another, Verstappen’s choice of actions, the petulance of his response and the bad taste he has left might well come back to repeat on him. He’s created trouble for himself and extra stress, just at a time when he’s running down a season during which he has been so brilliant and dominant.

On the face it, how utterly needless.

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