Former Benetton team manager Joan Villadelprat, who oversaw Michael Schumacher’s first few years with the team, believes that he may have ‘f***ed up’ by hiring Jos Verstappen. The Dutchman, father of reigning three-time world champion Max, was cut loose and forced to move on after just one season.
Verstappen’s first foray into F1 came with Benetton, racing alongside Schumacher in 1994 – the year of the German’s first world title. He would go on to win six more, putting him alongside Lewis Hamilton at the top of the all-time list.
Villadelprat is complimentary about Verstappen’s driving ability, but claims that the dynamic within the team went south when he tried competing with Schumacher on track. “Max has been forced since very young by his father to push – a very strict education, if you want to put it like that,” he told PlanetF1.
“His father was a good driver. I think, actually, we f***ed that up because we put him next to Michael. He tried to compete with Michael and, in the end, we needed to get rid of him.
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“But, without any problems, I believe in Hungary, he finished third on the podium. He was quick as hell, but quick on one lap. Michael was quick but, if you needed him to do 15 quick laps, he’d do 15 quick laps and still have two to three-tenths in the pocket if he needed to push a bit more. So that was the difference between a great driver and a magic one.”
Schumacher was in his thirties by the time he notched a third world title. Max Verstappen, by comparison, has only just turned 26, and there are no signs of his F1 dominance slowing down just yet.
“That’s where Michael used to be tremendously good and, from what I understand from engineers and people in the paddock, Max is very much similar in that sense.
“Michael and Max have a lot of things in common. They’re both introverted, both family men. So yes, there are a lot of similarities, a lot of similarities.”
