Verstappen wants “top” team mate

Max Verstappen says he would like to have a top team-mate like Daniel Ricciardo alongside him at Red Bull in 2020. Verstappen and Ricciardo were very closely matched during their three seasons as team-mates and were arguably the highest quality pairing on the grids. The Dutchman won one more race for Red Bull in their time together after crossing the line first in five races opposed to Ricciardo’s four. However, the Australian was regarded as more consistent and outscored Verstappen in 2016 and 2017 as he finished third and fifth in the championship respectively, compared with his younger team mate’s fifth and sixth. Verstappen rallied back in 2018 to finish the season in fourth in comparison to Ricciardo’s sixth, before the latter surprised everyone by moving on to Renault. This season, the 22-year-old started with Frenchman Pierre Gasly as his team mate before he was dropped after the Hungarian Grand Prix for poor performance. Toro Rosso’s Alex Albon came in to replace him but has not fared much better and Verstappen admits he would like a team mate of Ricciardo’s standing to help push his own performance. “[I want] someone who can be in the fight and push me to greater heights as well,” he said. “I think I had that ideal situation with Daniel. When I joined the team, I was of course more of a rookie and he was already there for a few years. Then you can learn and build up nicely, but at a certain point it also became more difficult for him, because we were very close together the whole time.”