Last Updated on December 3 2023, 1:00 pm

In the run up to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Christian Horner raised the spectre of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen racing together when he revealed the seven times world champions father had enquired about his son racing at Red Bull.

Immediately those of us old enough have flashbacks to Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, the ageing professor and the young gun charger who were both recruited by Ron Dennis for his McLaren team.

 

 

 

Speculation Alonso replacing Perez unfounded

Back in the autumn there was speculation Fernando Alonso could replace the failing Sergio Perez which again would create a start studded matchup on both sides of the Red Bull garage.

Yet in modern Formula One we rarely see such Stella team mate matchups as the teams prefer to be able to ‘control’ their drivers rather than have them going hell for leather to eat each other.

To be fair to Verstappen when asked about Hamilton being his team mate the Dutch world champion replied he would be happy for any of the current F1 drivers alongside him in the soon coming RB20.

This attitude is distinctly different from Lewis Hamilton who insisted  he was consulted over the replacement for Nico Rosberg for the 2017 season. Rosberg had been at Mercedes before Hamilton and their three years together saw titanic battles both on and off track as they pushed each other to the limit in pursuit of the drivers’ crown.

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Hamilton sought to block Russell

Talking about Hamilton’s next team mate, Toto Wolff told La Gazzetta, ”we make this type of choice solely on the basis of the interest of the team, but Lewis has been with us for a long time. So, yes, I submitted our narrow list to him, asking for his opinion.”

Hamilton was less keen when the team decided to promote George Russell and reportedly argued for Bottas to remain for one more year. Hamilton had found his Finnish team mate compliant and not the kind of challenge he faced for three years when racing alongside Rosberg.

“Yes, Lewis would have preferred Valtteri Bottas to stay because they had an established relationship with good respect, and Lewis didn’t have to worry about the other driver being quicker than him too often,” Ted Kravitz told Sky Sports news on the announcement that George Russell was joining the Mercedes team.

And certainly Hamilton has been more uncomfortable since the lad from Kings Lynn was recruited, finishing behind him last season in the points standings and only managing to equal George in the qualifying head to head this year (11-11).

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Max to ‘pass’ on Indycar

This weekend F1 world champion is visiting the annual Honda ‘thanks day’ celebration together with Sergio Perez and the AlphaTauri driving pair too. Also in attendance is Indy500 winner Takuma Sato and a number of the  Moto GP riders including Marc Marquez.

Whilst Sato was demonstrating his 2020 winning Indy500 car Verstappen was asked whether he would consider racing in the North American series in the future.

“I like to watch it,” said Max. “I have a lot of respect for what they do, but I don’t think I’d be participating.”

The triple world champion did admit there were racing series he would consider competing in including the iconic Le Mans 24 hour event.

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Alonso wants to race Le Mans with Verstappen

“For sure I would like to try a MotoGP bike,” Verstappen added. “I enjoy SuperGT. I got to try one last year, which was very nice. The Super Formula cars, they’re very nice. It’s the fastest car below Formula 1, they look great.

“But Le Mans, I would definitely like to do. I’ve been there already, when my dad used to race in Le Mans. The atmosphere is amazing in endurance – so many people, driving through the night, sunrise… I think it’s really cool.”

Unlike F1, endurance racing sees each car piloted by more than one driver during the even and Verstappen revealed Aston Martin driver, Fernando Alonso, had already expressed his interest in completing the historic race sharing a car with Verstappen. Alonso won the 24 hour race with Toyota twice during his absence from Formula One. 

“I’ve been speaking to Fernando about it,” Verstappen revealed. “He said he would only want to do it with me again. So I said ‘that would be really cool’.

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Red Bull Le Mans entry for 2025?

“The only thing is that, for Le Mans, there is not like a minimum weight for the driver. I’m quite a heavy driver, so I’d need to find light team mates to compensate. But Fernando is quite light, so it would be quite good. But we’d need to find another one, so I need to have a look.”

Back in June 2022 Red Bull announced work was commencing on the RB17 project to build a hydrogen powered hypercar capable of entering the Le Mans 24 hour race. The cars will begin production in 2025 and just 50 will be built and most were pre-sold at a cost of £5 million before the announcement.

“It would be fantastic to participate with the RB17, if possible. Who knows!” Max commented at the time.

Whether we’ll ever see the Alonso/Verstappen dream team join forces for Le Mans remains to be seen, given the teams are competing to win the marquee event and if the Spaniard remains at Aston Martin there could be a conflict of brand interest between them and Red Bull.

 

 

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