Why Max Verstappen is a teammate DESTROYER

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When it comes to Max Verstappen, something that’s become a bit of recurring theme in his career is the ever-widening performance gap between himself and his teammates. It’s very common amongst frontrunning Formula 1 teams to have a lead driver, and then a second driver who, either willingly or unwillingly, plays the supporting role: Jackie Stewart and François Cevert, Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger, Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine and then Rubens Barrichello, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, and of course Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. In these examples, the number two drivers were individually very talented, but only on occasion could beat their generationally talented teammates outright, but otherwise were dependable wingmen and were invaluable in delivering Constructors’ titles to the team. In Verstappen’s case however, the six teammates he's had have all been held in very high regard, but have all come out of the experience of being his teammate with their reputations either severely compromised, or irreparably damaged. As time has gone on, and Verstappen has really come into his own, this discrepancy has only gotten worse, to the point where Red Bull are losing Constructors’ titles. And Verstappen’s latest teammate, Liam Lawson, has lasted just two races, and Yuki Tsunoda is next up on the chopping block.
Today, I’m going to do a bit of historical analysis to try and find out why. I’m going to go through Verstappen’s Formula 1 career and dissect his own performances, how they compare to his teammates, the cars he drove, and the team structure, and see if we can begin to understand why his teammates falter against him, but then shine once they move elsewhere.
Before we get going, as ever, remember to subscribe to the channel and turn all notifications on so you’re always notified of uploads, like the video, comment on the video, share the video, and become a channel member for as little as £1 a month. With that out of the way, here is why Max Verstappen is a teammate destroyer.

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Timestamps

0:00 Introduction
1:58 Verstappen’s junior career
5:25 2015
10:15 2016 (Sainz)
12:44 2016 (Ricciardo)
16:23 2017
18:45 2018
23:22 2019 (Gasly)
27:24 2019 (Albon)
30:21 2020
33:36 2021
37:14 2022
40:03 2023
44:54 2024
51:18 2025
55:41 post-Verstappen careers
59:15 Why is Verstappen a teammate destroyer?

#f1 #formula1 #mv33

[peteradam]

Kvyat wasn't his teammate but definitely should be on the thumbnail as the biggest massacre.

[gemberkoekje]

The fact that Verstappen has gotten into the points every single race he finished since 2016 is absolutely bonkers.

[eliasvonderkeim]

I really like these longer videos, they're great to watch while studying, eating etc

[sebastianahrens]

That outside overtake on Rosberg in Brazil in 2016 was out of this world.
Rosberg was no slouch, as in the same year, he would go on to beat a prime Lewis Hamilton in equal machinery to become the driver's champion.

[Appletank]

Seems like Jos saw how Schu was able to handle bad cars and decided to make a racing robot that could instinctively catch any car at the limit

[TnTProDuctionsFilms]

I forgot which interview Max said this, but back during his early Red Bull years, he mentioned that the less steering input you put into the car the faster the car can go. So the high steering sensitivity getting sharper and sharper over the years doesn't surprise me.

[tomcharlton]

as a schumcher fan back in the day and a verstappen fan now, i really enjoyed the comparison between the two towards the end.

[Poisonjam]

A+++ on that thumbnail. That’s hilarious!!

[lllouise]

What I love about Max is that, yes, he's a teammate "destroyer", but he's good friends with ALL of his past teammates. It just shows you how Max is a genuinely nice and cool guy. Even between their title fight in 2022, Max and Charles were chatting and laughing together. Max never makes things personal unless the other person has bad intentions and makes it personal with him (like Hamilton in 2021 where he almost killed Max and celebrated).

In terms of performance, you can always rely on Max to give you his 101%. He has a raw talent that cannot be copied by any driver, because he drives with intuition depending on the race, the car, the weather, the track and the opponents. Max's biggest advantage amongst the rest (just like Senna and Schumacher had) is intuition and natural talent. F1 legends say this again and again, you cannot manufacture natural talent. No one, not even their fathers, can manufacture a Max Verstappen. Even Jos Verstappen said Max can play football or tennis and he will support him, but Max WANTED to race and begged his mom and dad.

All of this is also why Max is so good, he really wants it. He loves racing.

[oxcart]

Because he's a generational talent, and we should be glad that we're alive to see him race!

[mamavswild]

Max Verstappen is a teammate destroyer because he is just THAT GOOD. Remember that he has defeated every teammate he has EVER had, not just in Red Bull or even Formula One! Kid was spitting out teammates through his teeth at the age of seven and savoring their brains with a nice Chianti.

From Red Bull to Torro Rosso ( the much older and experienced Sainz) and he was undefeated among his teammates in karting too…the only year he was a tad behind was once with Ricciardo when he was a teen lad and Ricciardo the lead driver. Not sure that’s something to write home about. But that’s why- end of. (And when you add the sum of his years with Ricciardo, he defeats Ricciardo also)

[i_like_trainsyt]

what makes it even worse for Liam is how little Red Bull invested in his career. If you just look at Antonelli and how much time they have put into his development makes it clear that redbull has o idea what they are doing. Having a driver that has driven over 10000km in previous cars and one that has only been given a couple of fp1 sessions and every now and again a testing day it is clear that Red Bull is the one that is faling their drivers.

[Ryzard]

30:40 - I think you could legitimately make an argument that Albon's career at the front of the grid (at least for now) was completely crippled by Lewis Hamilton specifically.

I do find it wild that Hamilton constantly is called clean/implied not to have incidents, feels like calling 2023 max the cleanest driver in history lol

[randynewman]

Kimi Antonelli has had 10 times as much time in the Mercedes as did Liam Lawson has had in the Red Bull.

[Miked]

So far, Ricciardo was the most competitive teammate to Verstappen. Might be because Ricciardo was the #1 driver when Verstappen came into the team and eventually overtook Daniel, but they were the closest competitors.

I still miss Ricciardo in the red bull.

[jamesrichardson]

Reason #1 for the large gap between Max and his teammates is he is Max Verstappen, who is not just one of the greatest drivers ever but really the fact that he hasn't matched the win total of Schumacher or Hamilton yet is the only reason some might feel uncomfortable admitting the truth yet that he is the best driver of all-Time. The #2 reason people give seems strange to me. Why would a racing series have teams with 2 different drivers only to force both to drive the same car and setup? That seems like an excuse to me. I don't see how that could be the normal practice in F1. I think a big part is the stress of doing everything you can to try and match Max's time and not being able to do it no matter what they do. All these drivers have been very successful even dominating the lesser series their whole careers and when they realize the gap they push and make mistakes which lead to to cautious after that.

[afimtastic]

liam deserved more time to develop, that car is only getting tricky even for verstappen

[FastMellow]

Very good video! The swap between Lawson and Tsunoda is indeed harsh, to say the least. One could argue that Lawson needs more time to get used to the car, but after seeing Gasly and Albon struggle with similar cars, do we really think he could suddenly achieve P10 starting positions? He has also had a bit of bad luck. Two years ago, being a second behind Verstappen still meant starting within the first four grid slots. Now, in China, it put him dead last—twice.

While the swap is brutal, it could work in his favor if he can pick up where Tsunoda left off. He hasn’t lost all his confidence, which might help him recover. When driving for the main Red Bull team, you are expected to perform at your maximum every single race. It’s not about beating Verstappen (as every second driver since Gasly has been hired to support Verstappen), but about staying relatively close. With Racing Bulls, however, you don’t need to excel in every race. For a driver like Lawson, who has only a dozen races under his belt, that might be a better match. However, if he fails to outperform Hadjar (good name!) by the summer break, I suspect his stint in F1 - at least as a Red Bull driver - will be over.

Several years ago, I saw an interview with a Red Bull mechanic who explained why Verstappen often ends up with a better setup. He mentioned that Verstappen’s experience with sim racing allows him to effectively communicate the specific changes he wants. While other drivers talk about the car’s feeling or behavior, Verstappen requests precise adjustments. He knows the kind of setup he prefers and how to achieve it. This is why Verstappen is often a bit slower in FP1 but suddenly emerges at the front of the field during qualifying.

Where Lawson had bad luck in his first race, Verstappen was extremely lucky in his debut, which gave him a significant ego boost. Verstappen was also given time to adjust because Red Bull wasn’t in a winning position at the time. Occasional poor performances were acceptable. Now, however, Red Bull has been a front-running team for several years, with wins expected at every race. There is no such luxury anymore. In F1, everything - both literally and figuratively - comes down to timing.

Norris has potential, but he is currently too nice. He should be a bit more aggressive, both with his team and with other drivers on the grid, if he wants to win a title...

[woofy]

This video is so apt as Max took pole in Suzuka whilst Yuki is in p15

[Spacebug]

Max Verstappen: Teammate Destroyer
Yuki Tsunoda: Teammate Destroyer
Who Wins?