18 October 2023 , 15:52
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Max Verstappen hopes to collaborate with Ferrari on a personal project despite thwarting their Formula 1 ambitions on a weekly basis.
The Dutchman is in the form of his life and has already secured his third consecutive F1 title this season. Like everyone else on the grid, Ferrari have been nowhere near Red Bull in 2023 but were Verstappen's chief challengers last year.
Verstappen has five more years remaining on his current Red Bull deal and will hope to inflict more title heartbreak on the Scuderia in that time. But, away from the track, he hopes to find a way to work with the Italians.
In particular, the 26-year-old has his eye on the F2004 car driven by Michael Schumacher in dominant fashion. The German won his seventh and final world championship using that iconic Ferrari machine that year, winning 13 of 18 races in the process.
Having won 14 of 17 Grands Prix so far this year, Verstappen has already bettered that achievement in his fearsome RB19. But so special is that Ferrari car to the Dutchman that he would like to get his hands on it for his own personal collection.
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"I would like to have in my garage all the Red Bull cars with which I have won an F1 world championship, in addition to Michael Schumacher's Ferrari F2004," he told Gazzetta dello Sport.
And he joked that maybe that statement alone might spark contact with the Italian carmaker's chairman to discuss a deal. "It's an incredible car, but I don't know how I would buy it. This is an appeal to John Elkann, I hope he reads this interview and maybe calls me," he added.
Elkann would no doubt love to see Verstappen switch to his company's team in the future, but that seems unlikely for quite some time. That mega-money Red Bull contract alone means it will be several years before any other team can begin to make overtures to him.
And if Red Bull are still winning at that point, it is difficult to imagine Verstappen being interested in a change of scenery. Former Ferrari chairman Luca Di Montezemolo admitted as much recently after revealing he had been closely following Verstappen's development since he was a child racer.
Di Montezemolo told Gazzetta that, during his 23-year tenure as chairman, Ferrari had kept tabs on Verstappen "since he drove in karting championships". But he also admitted that the team will not be an attractive proposition for the Dutchman in its current state, declaring: "I don't like where Ferrari is today."