Verstappen supports Ben Sulayem
The power battle between FIA and Liberty Media is the “political” counterpart of that between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton: although the two champions of the steering wheel cannot be classified in any camp, one can well imagine who they “side” with.
Hamilton has one all-round vision of racingcultivating interests even outside of Formula 1, smiling at the entry of new audiences and circuits into the Circus and not disdaining the continuous innovations that Liberty Media proposes (the Briton is among the few who have never openly criticized the Sprint format, for example). Verstappen likes to call himself a pure racersomeone who only thinks about races, and who would like to talk about races, without having to “feel like a clown” for the entire series of collateral events that the Stars and Stripes F1 imposes. In this sense, Verstappen is close to Ben Sulayem, and he is also close to the races: too many, according to the Emirati; an opinion that is also reflected in the world champion.
Verstappen's words
“I would definitely like fewer races, for me there are too many. But it's not us drivers who decide, it's not even the FIA“, these are his words ad Auto Motor und Sport. “I am always in favor of fewer races and more quality. And the teams? Only if they are quality and don't just fill the field“. A position, in this case, halfway between FIA (which in any case has completed its screening process for the entry of new teams starting from 2025) and Liberty Media.
In that curious contrast between F1 looking for spectacle and a fight for the top that didn't exist in 2023, the only one smiling was Verstappen himself. Asked if he finds it boring to win races with such clear dominance, the world champion replied: “I'm not bored. Even when you're in front, things are always happening that you can't see from the outside: you can always fine-tune the car or discover new things. She constantly communicates with the team. So it's never boring when you're ahead. Maybe it gets a little boring when you're in sixth place and you're in no man's land“.
#Verstappen #GPs #races #quality
