Lewis Hamilton tipped to create 'uncontrollable ego mess' by joining Max Verstappen at Red Bull
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen may never team up
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Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen would create a toxic atmosphere if they were racing together at Red Bull, according to former F1 driver Johnny Herbert.
Hamilton put to bed any chance of a shock move to Red Bull this year when he penned a new two-year contract with Mercedes running until the end of 2025.
Ever since Verstappen and Hamilton began going toe-to-toe on the track, fans have dreamed up a potential superteam between the two.
It rarely happens in F1 for the best two drivers on the grid to be on the same team with bosses struggling to manage the power dynamic.
Lewis Hamilton is pushing Max Verstappen for top spot
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Toto Wolff had trouble keeping the peace between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg before the latter retired after his World Championship win back in 2016.
But Verstappen and Hamilton teaming up would send shockwaves up and down the grid, particularly if the Brit left Mercedes for Red Bull.
The hypothetical situation looks unlikely to ever happen with Hamilton regularly stating his desire to stick with Mercedes for the remainder of his career.
And Herbert has explained why Hamilton switching over to Red Bull with Verstappen would be a disaster.
“Lewis would be very aware that Christian [Horner] and everybody – Helmut Marko and the rest of the team, Jonathan Wheatley, etc, etc – their main support is Max, because they know Max will deliver,” he said.
“Now can you do that and split that and make it fair for a Lewis Hamilton? A seven-time World Champion coming into it? It won’t work.
“I think the drivers know it won’t work. One might think he’s probably got the advantage – I would say that’s Max, because Lewis is going into his team, but I don’t think that’s something that would work.
“It would just turn into an uncontrollable ego mess. Who would come out on top? It would just be the one who’s the most devious, I suppose!
“That’s the only way if that was ever allowed to happen!”
He added: “One of them especially, to get that eighth World Championship and go ahead of Michael. They’re both wanting to do that.
“Now, the only way you’re able to do that is to be number one.
"There’s your problem because when it was Senna and Prost, it was a very, very hard thing for Ron Dennis (then McLaren team boss) to be able to control.
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Lewis Hamilton will likely stick with Mercedes
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“You can’t control it, whatever you try. Even if you stuck them in different rooms for that weekend, you’d still have issues once they get the helmet on and they get on with their race.
“You’re always going to have those incidents that we saw with both of them – once at McLaren, and once at McLaren and Ferrari when Alain had moved on.
“I think it’s the same thing with Lewis and Max, you can’t have those two elite drivers in the same team because you can’t manage it.”