"An amazing guy" - Max Verstappen on being teammates with Daniel Ricciardo

Max Verstappen has praised former teammate Daniel Ricciardo, calling him "an amazing guy.”

Speaking to Will Buxton in a post-race interview for F1’s official channel, Verstappen said:

“I had a great relationship with basically all my teammates, but especially also Daniel, you know, he's an amazing guy. I really get along with him well. And of course, now I’ve grown up a lot from when I was 17, 18. My dad has always said you can always listen to anyone and then you just take whatever you think is necessary or what you think is good. And you try to apply that to yourself. And that's how I work.”

Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were teammates for two and a half years between 2016 and 2018 when the former was promoted to the senior Red Bull team mid-season to replace Daniil Kvyat.

During their time together, Verstappen and Ricciardo got along well off-track but also had several controversial moments on-track. Ricciardo has previously held the pair coming together in Baku 2018, as well as the Red Bull management’s reaction after the incident, as the reasons for his departure from the team to Renault for 2019.

Since 2019, multiple drivers have replaced Ricciardo as Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull, but none of them have managed to perform on par with Verstappen, especially in qualifying.

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Max Verstappen reveals that he was crying on the in-lap after winning at Abu Dhabi

Max Verstappen has often been described as “hot-headed”, “aggressive” and “angry”, but never “emotional”. Last Sunday, the 24-year-old became one of F1’s youngest world champions. Finally achieving his “last objective” in F1 made him cry after his dramatic win, according to Verstappen.

When asked by Will Buxton as to what the support and trust that he has received from Red Bull over the years meant for him, Verstappen said:

“I mean, I'm normally not really an emotional guy. I don't really show my emotion. Of course, sometimes I'm upset on the radio, but that's different. You know, that's just when you're not agreeing to something but yeah, I mean, I was crying on the in-lap, so it just means a lot. I mean, it's my life.”

In 2015, Red Bull broke the convention to offer Max Verstappen an F1 seat when he was just 17 years old and ensured that Verstappen drove for them instead of Mercedes (who wanted to put him through junior Formula, similar to George Russell).

When Max Verstappen won his first race after being promoted to the senior team, Red Bull put their faith in him to become the youngest world champion in F1 history and emulate former Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel, who won four world championships for the team.

Red Bull, however, has often been criticized for prioritizing Verstappen over their second drivers. Daniel Ricciardo’s departure to Renault has often been regarded as such an instance.