Max Verstappen ‘would rather crash than let you beat him’ claim made

Max Verstappen would “rather crash than let you beat him”, according to former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya.

The seven-time grand prix winner and 30-time podium finisher has criticised Verstappen’s hot-headedness when racing his rivals, which has often led to collisions.

Verstappen famously crashed with Lewis Hamilton on several occasions during their fierce 2021 title battle, while he also clashed with McLaren’s Lando Norris at times last year.

“Max doesn't like losing, and Max is a guy who would rather crash than let you beat him,” Montoya told OnlineCassino.com.br.

“We saw it at the end of last year where he did things that people were shocked by. We were asking ourselves, ‘Why did he do that?’

“When he was going against Lewis and taking no prisoners, everybody thought,’ Oh great. Finally someone is standing up to Hamilton.’

“Now the positions are reversed. And you look at it and now when the guy that is winning does something dodgy, they question it. That’s a new thing.”

Verstappen ‘won’t be a problem’ for Hamilton

Montoya also believes that Verstappen won’t be a factor in the 2025 F1 world championship, despite winning four successive drivers’ titles.

The Colombian expects Red Bull’s performance struggles which hampered them throughout parts of the 2024 season to continue, especially following the loss of design legend Adrian Newey, who has joined Aston Martin.

Montoya reckons McLaren and Ferrari, boosted by the arrival of seven-time world champion Hamilton, both head into the new campaign in stronger shape than Red Bull.

“Verstappen is not going to be Lewis’s problem this year. I'd be surprised if Red Bull comes out swinging like the last few years,” he added.

“Adrian Newey came out the other day saying that the problems at Red Bull are not as simple as they think it is.

"It's really difficult because when you believe what you're doing is right and all of a sudden things stop working, how far back do you go, and at what point do you go, ‘Is what we're doing now right or are we still wrong?

“If you're saying you're building the car wrong and you realise what you're doing is wrong, then how convinced are you that what you're doing now is completely right?

“At some point they have just got to go, ‘This is what we believe in and this is where we're going to put an effort in and this is what we're going to do and this is what's going to happen.

“You just start moving sideways or even backwards. If you keep going forward based on the wrong basics you're never going to get out of the hole. And that hole can be very deep, that's the problem.

“McLaren seem to have a very good understanding in how to translate everything they are doing into success. McLaren right now are the best team at identifying what is needed, telling the organisation what they are going to do and make it work better.”