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Jos Verstappen reveals: "Maybe there were some options in another team for Max"

13 April 2020 at 19:00
  • GPblog.com

Jos Verstappen hopes that Max Verstappen can reward what he has built up with a world title at Red Bull Racing. The former Formula 1 driver further states that teams from the midfield don't have to knock on the door for Verstappen and that recently there were 'options' with another team in the king's class of motor racing.

"During the end of the year we were discussing the options", Jos Verstappen starts telling at GP Racing. According to the former driver it was not possible for a McLaren or Renault to seduce Verstappen with a bag of money. "You want to be in a top team, we were not thinking about the others."

Verstappen has built something up at Red Bull

Jos is of the opinion that his 22 year old son did not get the position he has at Red Bull at Ferrari or Mercedes just like that. "The position Max has in the team where he is now, to create that somewhere else I think takes a couple of years", he says. "Max wants to show them that he can do it (to be world champion) with Red Bull and Honda."

Verstappen decided to join Red Bull for a long time and although the Dutch camp didn't have to think long about it either, it wasn't the only option. "Maybe there were some options in another team", Jos is a bit cryptic, without going any further. "But I think the time is not there yet. It doesn’t say if you go to another team that you’re going to win, because maybe Red Bull is gonna create something very special"

Again clause in contract Verstappen?

Jos thinks Lewis Hamilton 'will continue at Mercedes for another two years'. Should that be the case, the Brit's contract would expire after 2022 at the Brackley based race stable. Verstappen is fixed until 2023, but according to several media outlets an earlier departure at Red Bull is not entirely out of the question. If Honda were to leave Formula 1, there would be a possibility of an exit for Verstappen.

In any case it was agreed between Red Bull and de Verstappens not to go into the contract negotiations. "We agreed not to talk about it. We know what it is in there and that’s important between us and the team.” So Jos neither confirmed nor denied the existence of such a clause.