11 June 2023 , 13:35
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Two-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen has been tipped to quit Red Bull and join Ferrari in a bid to prove he is one of the greatest of all time.
Verstappen won his first world title in controversial fashion in 2021, pipping Lewis Hamilton by just eight points. He then retained it last year, with Red Bull dominating the competition and winning 17 of the 22 Grand Prix.
And Verstappen looks set for another dominant win this year, having already won five out of seven races and only his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez posing any kind of threat. As a result of Red Bull's dominance, former Le Mans winner Richard Bradley expects Verstappen to join Ferrari in a bid to prove he belongs in the same bracket as F1 legends Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna and Hamilton.
Bradley feels Verstappen needs to "do what defines the true greats" and "win in a substandard car". Speaking to On Track GP, Bradley claimed: "I think that Max is going to end up at Ferrari in a couple of years.
"It wouldn't surprise me, I think especially if he keeps on winning titles and he starts to get complacent, and people start saying 'oh, is he the greatest of all time?' Max is the sort of guy that goes 'okay, well I'll do what Schumacher did: I'll take Ferrari from not being in the position to win, to make them World Champions'.
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"The reason I think this is because Max is on the path to greatness, we can all see that, he's on a meteoric rise, he's dominant at the minute, he's had two World Championships in the Red Bull, but we've never actually seen him do what defines the true greats.
"And when I say that, we look at [Michael] Schumacher, we look at [Ayrton] Senna, [Lewis] Hamilton, and the one thing that defines all of these guys is that they were able to win in a substandard car and take a manufacturer to a position where they weren't winning at the time, but then they're able to bring them back there.
Verstappen is on course to win a third consecutive F1 world championship this season (Hasan Bratic/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)"Schumacher doing it with Ferrari, we had Senna when he was at Lotus, we had Hamilton at McLaren after the new rules came in in 2009 and then of course with Mercedes. Whilst Max is doing exactly what he needs to do in a very, very good team and car, I think he's going to want to prove himself because Max, there's no secret, he's quite a proud person to say the least.
"And he's going to want to show that he is one of the true all-time greats. And I can see him wanting to bring Ferrari back to the glory that they had with Schumacher, in the next few years. How this might look, I don't know.
"When this might happen, we're not sure. He's still young and he’s still got a bit of time, but I'd be quite confident that maybe after the next five years, if he's got to the level of five or so championships, which I think is very real, especially if the rules don't change until 2026, I think it's something to keep an eye on."