MPH: Hamilton and Verstappen as team-mates? It's all just a game

You know the way magnets attract and then when you switch one of the poles they repel? It’s like that with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. The latest ‘tiff’ – created as a result of Christian Horner ‘revealing’ to the Daily Mail that Hamilton ‘reached out’ to Red Bull early this year and also spoke with Ferrari before re-signing with Mercedes three months ago – is just another example.

The idea of Verstappen and Hamilton being paired as team-mates is so radioactive that even though it isn’t happening, just the mere suggestion that it might have done is enough to trigger recriminations and stand-offs.

It’s not that there is a personal issue between them. There absolutely is not. They just do not resonate on the same wavelength. But the radioactivity, just about the idea of them being in the same team, arises from their status, their pride, their confidence.

A Hamilton and Verstappen partnership would inevitably be fraught in the extreme

Verstappen tried in vain to stop dead in its tracks the discussion of how he would feel about the idea. “What would it add, to know? Given that it’s not something that is happening.” he questioned. When pressed further, his resolve weakened. “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind, doesn’t matter. Anyone [as a team-mate]. Yeah. I don’t want to put it like now particularly on Lewis, you know, I mean there are so many great drivers as well, so yeah… sometimes it just doesn’t work out like that.”

Obviously, this imaginary scenario of a Verstappen/Hamilton line-up was then put to Hamilton. He didn’t bother trying to dampen it down, just answered the question. “I’d be more than happy to race against Max in the same car. It would be wonderful. I don’t think he wants me to be his team mate.”

This happened a few years ago, when there was a clause in Verstappen’s Red Bull contract which potentially allowed him to be a free agent in 2020 – and speculation was linking him with a possible move to Mercedes alongside Hamilton.

Hamilton was asked about it in a press conference, with Verstappen sitting alongside him, and replied, “I think the team is quite happy with Valtteri,” he replied, “But yeah, why not?” Looking to Max he said, “Yes, I’d have you as my team-mate.”

I made reference to that a couple of races later when interviewing Max for Motor Sport and he clearly wasn’t taking Lewis’ comments at face value: “Yeah, he had to say that, didn’t he? I would probably have said the same in his position.”

It’s all just a game. Back then, the very last thing Hamilton would have wanted, as he blitzed the field in the fastest car was to be joined there by the one guy who was clearly going to be his big future rival. Verstappen, starved of a title-calibre car for the first few years of his career, would have been far more up for the idea — and hence informal contact with Mercedes had indeed been made.

Now of course the boot is on the other foot, with Verstappen in the fastest car in the field, chasing Hamilton’s records and Hamilton starved of a title-calibre car for the last two years. It would be natural if Verstappen was resentful of the idea of Hamilton piggy-backing onto the team he’s been with in the long slog to its current position. Conversely, probably Hamilton would relish the opportunity of climbing into such a car. They are absolutely in the inverted positions of four years ago. So regardless of who actually contacted whom, it would be very natural if Hamilton had his people stake out what the situation might be before he re-signed with Mercedes, a team which is trying to find its way back to the light but with no guarantees about timescales and Hamilton 38 years old.

There is no appetite for Hamilton at Red Bull, simply because they believe it would upset the equilibrium of the team, not because of any lack of belief in Hamilton. But even a Verstappen-Daniel Ricciardo combination was fraught with tensions that on one famous occasion blew up. It would inevitably be fraught in the extreme.

But that’s not happening – and Red Bull should have a relatively serene pairing. On the other hand, if Mercedes does come good sooner rather than later, the Hamilton-George Russell combination will be quite different in its dynamic to Hamilton-Valtteri Bottas. Suddenly their little niggles with one another on-track would come to have far more importance and would take some careful managing. Right now for Mercedes, that would be a nice problem to have.