Max Verstappen weighs in on Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc skirmish: “I’d never get two No 1 drivers"

Max Verstappen has weighed in on the dilemma Ferrari faces with having two “number one” drivers in its Formula 1 line-up. 

Red Bull driver Verstappen was happy to take advantage of the first-lap skirmish between Hamilton and Leclerc in Mexico that opened the door for the four-time world champion to steal victory away from Ferrari. 

Reflecting on what happened in Mexico again over the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend, Verstappen suggested he would change things if he was in charge at Ferrari. 

“I’ve said it before, and a lot of people often don’t agree, but if I was a team principal, I’d never get two ‘No 1’ drivers because then you get things like this,” the Dutchman told Viaplay. 

“One won’t yield for the other because they both think they can win, and that’s how I am too. And if I was a team principal, I’d change this.

“If you had a clear ‘No 1’ and ‘No 2’, they would’ve gone through the first corner as P1 and P2 and finished like that. Or P1 and P3, that’s fine too, because as a team you’re still scoring great points.”

Hamilton insisted that he and Leclerc had “squashed” their incident in Mexico after holding talks with Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur in Brazil. 

"Me and Charles sat and spoke and we squashed it, and we're moving on," he told Sky Sports F1. "We still have a huge amount of respect for each other and I'm glad we had a chat and now we move on.

"We've been getting along just fine as normal. Sometimes in those scenarios it takes having a conversation and there's been no demands from either side, it's both just giving our points and areas we can do better and support each other. I'm hoping to have better races moving forwards.”

Vasseur, meanwhile, stressed that Ferrari’s guidelines remain the same as before. 

"The guidelines are still the same. They accumulated perhaps a bit of frustration because they are starting each weekend side by side, and you have a kind of accumulation of fact," he said.

"But at the end of the day, the guideline is always the same - it's that they need to respect each other.

"They are two competitors with the fighting spirit for sure, but they need to have a respect for the other one.

"But mainly and firstly, they need to respect the brand, the team, the people working at home, the people working at the on track.

"I think we are putting a lot of effort on this, and the message was clear and will stay clear."