F1 News: Max Verstappen And Lewis Hamilton Likened To Ayrton Senna And Alain Prost's Rivalry

Only the "most devious" would come out on the top.

You might have already imagined Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton being teammates by now, thanks to Christian Horner's public statements made toward the end of the 2023 season. However, offering a realistic perspective, former driver Johnny Herbert talks about what could happen if Hamilton joined Verstappen at Red Bull, comparing their rivalry to Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost's.

Hamilton, known as one of the most successful drivers in the sport's history with seven championship titles, hasn't been able to add to his record of 103 Grand Prix wins for several months now. 

Verstappen, on the other hand, has been speeding to overtake those numbers at most probably the fastest pace ever witnessed in the history of the sport. Whether he would be successful in doing so or not is another matter altogether. 

However, the relationship between the two extremely competitive and successful drivers does offer a very good reason why teams don't risk pairing the two drivers..

Mercedes Press Image

But, the explosive combination of Hamilton and Verstappen would be a fascinating pairing, especially if you consider the fact that both drivers have won every single one of the last ten championships, except 2016's title, which was won by Nico Rosberg. 

Though the pairing might seem like a fantasy, three-time Grand Prix winner Johnny Herbert compared their "elite" rivalry to the one portrayed between Senna and Prost at McLaren in the late 1980s. Speaking to PlanetF1.com, he said:

“I think they’re both aware that, to win races but, more importantly, a world championship, and both are after that.

“One of them especially, to get that eighth World Championship and go ahead of Michael [Schumacher]. 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.

“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.”

Painting a picture of Hamilton being a part of the Red Bull camp alongside Verstappen, Herbert explained who would be victorious among the two, and why. He added:

“Lewis would be very aware that Christian 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.

“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!”