Max Verstappen could’ve signed for Ferrari instead of Red Bull, states his father Jos

Max Verstappen made his Formula 1 debut with Toro Rosso in 2015. His impressive campaign with the junior team saw him move to Red Bull in the midst of the 2016 season itself.

There, he achieved his maiden race win, becoming the youngest F1 driver to win a Grand Prix, and has been amazing with the team since. Winning two consecutive world championships and looking pretty much on the way to a third one, the Dutchman is still strong.

However, things could have been very different than how they are currently, as revealed by his father, former F1 driver, Jos Verstappen. He mentioned how the Maranello-based outfit Ferrari was interested in signing Verstappen at that point in time.

"They [Ferrari] looked for us after the first year in F1. Now Max has everything at Red Bull, a competitive car and team, it wouldn't make sense to change."

That obviously didn't happen. At that point in time, Ferrari had Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen behind their wheel. Both retired from the sport at the end of the 2022 and 2021 seasons, respectively.

Things could have been massively different for both teams if Max Verstappen had, in fact, been signed by Ferrari. The two went head-on to battle for the world championship in the 2022 season as Charles Leclerc was quite strong in the Ferrari.

However, it would be Verstappen who would win his second world championship at the Japanese Grand Prix.

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F1 pundit feels Max Verstappen's performance still amazes Red Bull

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen has been absolutely fierce during the 2023 season of Formula 1. Red Bull's RB19 is one of the most dominating creations in the history of the sport and has managed to win every single race up until now.

In the nine rounds, Verstappen has won seven times without facing much competition from anyone, and his achievements have been something for the team.

His recent victory marked his 41st and the team's 100th victory. Adding to that, he has led every single lap of every race ever since the Miami Grand Prix. Owing to these facts, F1 pundit Nate Saunders, from the ESPN F1 Unlapped podcast, feels that the team still remains amazed by these statistics.

"The thing with Red Bull is they... And Christian Horner, when you speak to him, [are] just continually blown away by him, you know, by just the level that he keeps setting."