Verstappen and Hamilton in one team? 'Two Alpha men can't be managed'

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Johnny Herbert on Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in one team
15 December 2023 at 11:00
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  • GPblog.com

After the drama over who in Hamilton's camp had approached Red Bull to talk about a possible place in the Austrian team, fantasies started. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in one team, how would that go? Johnny Herbert shares his thoughts on this.

This could be a great duo to beat the entire field after Mercedes' dominant period and with it Lewis Hamilton, and now with Max Verstappen's dominant period with Red Bull. Still, putting two 'alpha' drivers in one team does not seem like a good idea.

It is not often in Formula 1 that two dominant drivers end up driving together for one team, and in the examples we have, this did not bring much good. The most recent examples are Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in 2016 at Mercedes and Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen in 2014 at Ferrari.

Can't be managed

According to Herbert, you can only win if you are number one in the team and both men want this. It is, therefore, almost impossible to control the duo. Just look at Senna and Prost at McLaren. This only caused problems as soon as they put on their helmets, and the race started. Incidents always occurred. "I think it’s the same thing with Lewis and Max, you can’t have those two elite drivers in the same team because you can’t manage it. Whoever is most devious would come out on top," he told PlanetF1.com.

“It’d be messy wouldn’t it? I think that goes back to the problem of Prost and Senna, it’s unmanageable. It would be hell on earth I think, to have those two together. Would it be good for us to see? Damn right it would [laughs]. Well we saw them when they came together when one was in a Merc and one was in a Red Bull, then you go back to the Prost and Senna thing where they were in the same team, same car, and it blew up. And on that front, when was that in eighty eight, eighty nine, whenever it was, and then it carried on when Prost left and went to Ferrari. And it was the same sort of ensuing almost hate for each other that was still there, and they would literally do anything to beat the other one. And you’d say the same thing with Max and Lewis," Herbert added to Genting Casino.

The scenario where Hamilton and Verstappen drive in one team is most likely only a dream, as both have long-running contracts with their current teams.