Former Formula 1 driver Michael Bleekemolen has suggested that he “would put money on” Max Verstappen winning a World Championship if he moved to Ferrari.
Verstappen has won the previous two Drivers’ titles, defeating seven-time Champion Lewis Hamilton with a last-gasp overtake to triumph in an enthralling 2021 battle before crushing the opposition on his way to a much more comfortable retention of his crown last year.
With Red Bull emerging as the dominant force of 2023 in the early stages, Verstappen is well poised to become only the fifth driver in F1 history to win three successive Championships.
However, Ferrari, who finished runners-up to Red Bull last season after tailing off from a strong start, is in the midst of a 15-year drought since its last title success.
Bleekemolen, whose F1 career spanned only one start in 1978, believes his fellow countryman would be able to deliver success back to Maranello if he made the move to the Italian stable.
“Yes, I would put my money on it,” he answered when asked in an interview with GPFans if he would back Verstappen to emerge on top in a Ferrari. “I think so.
“Who is good, the car or the driver? That’s true in a lot of teams.”
Having pinpointed Verstappen as the man capable of ending the Scuderia’s protracted wait for a title, Bleekemolen outlined that the Red Bull star always extracts the maximum from the machinery at his disposal.
The 73-year-old used the example of McLaren, a team that has struggled during the early phase of the 2023 season, to argue that Verstappen is capable of elevating any team up the pecking order.
“Put Max in a McLaren, he might be in the middle of the field or even further forward,” he continued. “Who’s to say?”
However, any possibility of Verstappen ending up at F1’s most celebrated team in the not-too-distant future would be thwarted by his current contract situation with Red Bull.
Verstappen has been associated with Red Bull since graduating from its acclaimed driver academy in 2015 and penned a five-year extension with the Austrian outfit at the beginning of last year.
The Dutch racer’s lucrative contract ties him to the team until the end of 2028 and he has repeatedly hinted that he could opt to walk away from the sport at that stage.
Since being promoted to the senior Red Bull squad four races into his sophomore campaign, Verstappen has gone on to surpass Mark Webber’s record for most starts and he is set to overhaul Sebastian Vettel’s benchmark tally of 39 wins for the Milton-Keynes side in the coming months.
With wins in two of the first three rounds this year – including a maiden victory in Australia at the most recent grand prix – Verstappen upholds a 15-point advantage over his team-mate Sergio Perez ahead of a run of 10 races in 14 weeks.
Red Bull’s evolutionary RB19 car has been the class of the field and the reigning Champions are already a mammoth 58 points clear in the Constructors’ standings.
The Bulls’ nearest challenger so far this season has come surprisingly in the form of a resurgent Aston Martin, with new signing Fernando Alonso on the podium rostrum at all three events.
Ferrari, however, has been unable to replicate the surging start it made last season, when it won two of the opening three rounds and led both Championships comfortably.
The Italian entity sits fourth in the teams’ standings after a pointless showing in Melbourne and is already an enormous 97 points down on Red Bull with only three rounds completed.
