Max Verstappen believes that a driver who comes to the team, knowing in advance that he will have to play the role of “second number”, should accept and accept it.
Rider number 2’s job is to support the team leader and help him complete the main task – to win the title. Inevitably, this often means giving up track position to allow the number 1 driver to earn the highest points possible, as happened more than once with Sergio Pérez and Verstappen.
Another typical example is Valtteri Bottas’ work at Mercedes, where he was assigned the role of “second fiddle” to Lewis Hamilton, even though both had cars with which to fight for race victories.
“At a certain point the rider realizes that this will not happen again in his career. And he understands that,” says Jos Verstappen, father of the two-time world champion, in an interview with Viaplay about Bottas. “Bottas has been playing for Mercedes for many years, where he had the chance to fight for victories, and now he is at Alfa Romeo. I think this is the last phase of his career in Formula 1.
When you play for a championship team, you are determined to win and you try to achieve it. But after a few races you realize that nothing will come of it.”
Max Verstappen believes that Valtteri once agreed to the role of “number two” under Hamilton, although he managed to win races from time to time: “Each year he started with fresh strength and fighting spirit, but after several races he realized that he succeeded again failed to succeed and he accepted his role, but he often finished on the podium, won races and took many pole positions.
You just have to accept that the rider on the same team as you is a little bit better than you. It happens, and it’s normal. It is important that Valtteri accepted this. But some riders don’t succeed, and then everything starts to develop according to a completely wrong scenario. I’m not going to name specific names, but these riders don’t stay on teams for long.
In general, you have to accept the role that is offered to you, you cannot live in a fictional fairy-tale world.
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
