Günther Steiner on Max Verstappen’s future: “Mercedes doesn’t need him”

On the Up to Speed podcast, former Haas team principal Günther Steiner joined Grand Prix winner David Coulthard and host Jolie Sharpe for a chat. During the programme, Steiner also spoke about Max Verstappen’s future.

The 61-year-old South Tyrolean believes: “If Max were to change teams, he’d have to find something better than Red Bull Racing, and quite honestly – there aren’t many teams that are better than RBR.”

Günther Steiner

Foto: XPB

Steiner continued: “Admittedly, Red Bull Racing isn’t the frontrunner at the moment, but the Milton Keynes-based team is still one of the top four. And only a top team would be an option for Max if he were to continue racing in Formula 1.”

“But at Ferrari, the seats are taken by Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. And Mercedes no longer needs Max, because there they’ve found, in a sense, the next Verstappen in Kimi Antonelli.”

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“That leaves McLaren. But let’s be honest – is McLaren really better than Red Bull Racing? In my view, RBR has at least one major advantage. McLaren is a Mercedes customer team, whereas Red Bull Racing has its own engine, developed in collaboration with Ford, and a works engine is always the better solution than a customer engine.”