Max Verstappen has confirmed that his father, Jos Verstappen, has no plans to become an F1 team principal in the future. Despite that revelation, the four-time world champion believes he would be well-suited for the job and would avoid the controversy currently emanating from the McLaren camp.
Andrea Stella and Zak Brown have received some criticism this season for their management of drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who are fighting for the Drivers’ Championship title with six rounds remaining of the 2025 campaign.
In an effort to give both drivers the fairest opportunity possible to win the crown, Stella’s ‘papaya rules’ have backfired at times, creating complicated in-race scenarios for the McLaren pit wall to decipher, and leaving both drivers frustrated when internal decisions haven’t gone their way.
Most recently, Piastri was left agitated after McLaren refused to intervene and instruct Norris to relinquish third place following an opening-lap tussle at the Singapore Grand Prix. According to Verstappen, a similar scenario playing out with him in the car would be impossible.
“If you leave the door slightly open like Oscar did in Singapore, then you might end up in a situation like that,” he said in Austin. “But on the other hand, they kind of created this themselves by trying so hard to make everything equal with certain actions.”
Verstappen continued: “You know, a championship is never 100 per cent fair when it comes to certain moments. Sometimes you get a bad pit stop, sometimes an engine breaks. You can’t really balance that out, I think. They see it differently at McLaren, but this is my opinion. It’s very difficult – and that’s what sometimes leads to frustration.”
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Assessing the different management styles on offer in the paddock, Verstappen later added: “I think it’s actually good for a lot of people to get a kick in the ass sometimes! I think my dad would be a good team boss, also in F1.
“But he doesn’t want that. He’d be away from home too much. He’s already been through that with me, and now he has his family as well. It’s just not doable, and I think we shouldn’t want that from our side. But I’m 100 per cent sure that he would do well.”
What is certain in Verstappen’s mind is that the ongoing drama at McLaren would not happen under his father’s watch. “Yeah, there wouldn’t be any rules at all,” he joked. “You’d just have to put your right foot down! I know exactly what my dad is like.”