Former Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone has urged Ferrari to move quickly to secure the services of Gabriel Bortoleto, describing the young driver as “worth his weight in gold”.

Making waves in F1 with midfield outfit Sauber, the 20-year-old claimed his maiden points finish at the Austrian Grand Prix, crossing the line in eighth place ahead of veteran team-mate Nico Hulkenberg.

Despite retiring early at Silverstone, Bortoleto kept his momentum heading into races in Belgium and Hungary. He secured back-to-back top-10 finishes, quickly marking himself as one of the sport’s most promising young talents.

The reigning Formula 2 champion is one of seven rookies to have made their F1 debut this season, impressing with his pace, consistency, and composure against more experienced competitors.

So strong has his start been that Ferrari has been urged to act swiftly to secure his signature from the Swiss outfit.

Ecclestone, who owns a farm in Bortoleto’s native Brazil, played a role in helping the family navigate the youngster’s entry into F1. He praised Bortoleto’s recent performances at the Hungaroring before the summer break.

“I’m glad we were able to help the Bortoleto family with their entry into Formula 1,” he said, according to Swiss-German outlet Blick. “The boy is worth his weight in gold!”

“Bortoleto’s strong performances in a midfield team like Sauber should really wake Ferrari up now. The next driver question for the Italians needs to be resolved with the Brazilian.”

Ecclestone on the rising talents ready to take Hamilton’s seat at Ferrari

The British business magnate’s praise of Bortoleto came amid broader comments on the F1 grid. He is criticising Lewis Hamilton and suggested that the Scuderia should be keeping an eye on other emerging talents.

“If I could steal him, I’d take Isack Hadjar from Racing Bulls,” he told MailOnline. “He has done super well in his first year and is a great guy.

“I also rate our friend from Brazil [Bortoleto]. He is talented. Both of them are sensible, too.”

Ecclestone suggested that Hamilton, a seven-time F1 World Champion, might be due for a break from the sport.

“But like a lot of leading sports personalities when they reach the top, there is only one way to go, and it’s not a good direction,” he added. “It’s only down.

“They get tired. Lewis is tired. He’s been doing what he is doing forever. He needs a rest from it for good, a total reset to do something completely different.

“‘He may not think it but he will soon get used to doing other stuff away from motor racing in retirement. I think he should have done it a while ago.

“‘The guy is not a cheat. But he would be cheating himself if he goes on. He should stop now.”

READ MORE – Ex-F1 supremo urges Ferrari to sign Red Bull-backed driver to replace Lewis Hamilton

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Former Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has touted Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar to replace Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, amid his difficult 2025 campaign.

Hamilton has, by is own admission, struggled so far this year, and after a particularly low ebb last weekend at Hungary, suggested the team “change driver”.

At the Hungaroring, traditionally a happy hunting ground for the 40-year-old, it was a weekend from hell, qualifying and finishing in 12th.

Despite his own downcast outlook on the weekend, his current and former bosses – Fred Vasseur and Toto Wolff – both backed him to bounce back, as did team-mate Charles Leclerc.

But Ecclestone, speaking to the MailOnline, believes that the seven-time World Champion’s time is up.

“Lewis is very talented, was and probably still is,” he said.

“But like a lot of leading sports personalities when they reach the top, there is only one way to go, and it’s not a good direction. It’s only down.

“They get tired. Lewis is tired. He’s been doing what he is doing forever. He needs a rest from it for good, a total reset to do something completely different.

‘He may not think it but he will soon get used to doing other stuff away from motor racing in retirement. I think he should have done it a while ago.

‘The guy is not a cheat. But he would be cheating himself if he goes on. He should stop now.

‘If I were looking after him I would negotiate with Ferrari immediately and say, ‘If you have someone to replace Lewis, he’ll step aside.'”

Ecclestone backs rookies to take Hamilton’s place at Ferrari

Ecclestone articulated his view further, stating that given all he has achieved, there is no point in Hamilton risking his safety.

“I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to Lewis,” he explained.

“He’s not fighting for a World Championship and is at a stage of his life when it wouldn’t be worth him spending two years laid up in bed with a broken back or anything else nasty.

“He doesn’t need to take the risk any longer. He’s won seven World titles and that is quite enough.”

French rookie Hadjar has produced a number of stellar performances during his maiden season in F1, along with the man he was runner-up to in Formula 2 last year – Gabriel Bortoleto.

Ecclestone believes that either driver is capable of replacing Hamilton.

“If I could steal him, I’d take Isack Hadjar from Racing Bulls,” he said. “He has done super well in his first year and is a great guy.

“I also rate our friend from Brazil [Bortoleto]. He is talented. Both of them are sensible, too.”

READ MORE – Motorsport Week’s F1 2025 Hungarian GP Driver Ratings

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Bernie Ecclestone didn’t mince his words when addressing Christian Horner’s past controversy, labelling him an “idiot” amid his Formula 1 exit from Red Bull.

The 51-year-old was relieved of his duties this week following a combination of factors, including the team’s declining on-track performance, contentious second-driver decisions, and a reported erosion of trust within Max Verstappen’s camp.

The situation was compounded by a series of high-profile departures, most notably that of Technical Director Adrian Newey and ex-Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley.

These exits followed the controversy that engulfed Horner in February 2024, when a female Red Bull employee accused him of inappropriate behaviour.

An internal investigation – conducted by an external lawyer – ultimately found no wrongdoing on Horner’s part, though the findings of the report remain confidential.

The day after the controversy broke, F1 journalists received an anonymous email titled “Christian Horner investigation evidence”, which contained a Google Drive link featuring alleged WhatsApp exchanges between Horner and the complainant. The case is scheduled to be heard by a UK labour judge in January 2026.

“This business that he got involved with 18 months ago, he was just an idiot,” Ecclestone told The Telegraph on Thursday.

“He was a 50-year-old who thought he was 20, thought he was one of the boys.”

He expressed little sympathy for the woman at the centre of the complaint, continuing a pattern of unflattering comments Ecclestone has made about women over the years.

“I often wonder, when these situations happen, why if the girl is so upset with the advances of someone, they don’t just say, ‘Oi you, stop it,’” he added.

Horner’s all-encompassing role drew internal scrutiny

Following his dismissal, questions have been raised over the internal dynamics at Red Bull and the extent of Horner’s control at the team’s Milton Keynes base.

Ecclestone went on to suggest that the Briton’s far-reaching influence became a growing concern for key figures at the Austrian company.

He added: “It would probably have been better if they had said, ‘Come in, Christian, sit down’.

“But the bottom line is that there are people there who thought he was getting away with things, that he was acting as if it was not the Red Bull Ring, but the Christian Horner Ring.

“He got away with so many things, and all the time you’re delivering, people close their eyes.

“But when you stop delivering, people start looking – one or two begin thinking, ‘Well, I could do a better job.’”

Ecclestone also pointed to the shift in power following the death of Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz in 2022, suggesting the structure became increasingly muddled.

“Genuinely, it was a little bit of a muddle,” he highlighted. “Christian was the Chief Executive – if I’m the Chief Executive of a company, I want to be in charge.

“I want to do all the things that I think are right, and if I’m wrong, they can fire me.

“But the minute Christian can’t be in that position to do what he thinks should be done, then for him it’s not easy.

“You can’t half-manage something; you only really need one person.”

Horner’s desire for control hastened his exit, says ex-F1 owner

Ecclestone also claimed that Horner’s desire to oversee both sporting and commercial operations may ultimately have contributed to his downfall.

“I know it was suggested to him he should be a team manager and leave the commercial side to somebody else,” the 94-year-old explained.

“His idea was, ‘I am the chief executive.’ [But] you get very few executives who can do everything, from engineering to public relations.

“He had been running the company the way he thought it should be run. For a long time, people were prepared to say, ‘OK, fair enough, he’s getting the job done.’

“But as soon as you go off a little bit, people look and say, ‘Hang on.’ Christian won a lot of championships. He was used to winning.

“So it’s not easy when you’re not winning – and when you know that it’s not entirely your fault.”

READ MORE – ‘Like he’s murdered somebody’ – Ex-F1 owner questions sudden Christian Horner departure

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Ex-Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone has reacted to Red Bull’s sacking of Christian Horner, stating the suddenness of the departure has made it feel as if “he murdered somebody”.

Horner was fired unceremoniously by the team on Tuesday, mere days after the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

The 51-year-old gave an emotional speech to staff at its Milton Keynes base, saying that running the team for 20 years had been “the biggest privilege of his life“.

Ecclestone, who was head of F1’s commercial rights from 1987 until 2017, was shocked by the news, revealing that he had spoken to Horner just the day before.

“I spoke to him the day before and he didn’t know. Well, he might have known, but he didn’t tell me,” he told RacingNews365.

“It was a normal conversation. We were talking about Max [Verstappen]. Nothing to do with this, otherwise he would have told me.”

Horner ‘must have done something drastic’ to merit immediate firing

Ecclestone expressed surprise over the swiftness of the decision the team made to relieve Horner of his operational duties as Team Principal and CEO, intimating that his actions to trigger such a decision might have been bad enough to warrant it.

“All I know is the message the whole world has got, which is, he’s been fired, effective immediately,” he added.

“It’s the effective immediately I don’t understand. Why would they ask him to leave with immediate effect? It’s like he’s murdered somebody.

“You can understand, if you’re going to fire somebody, then you’d have a chat before and you’d come out with something like, ‘We’ve agreed to part company’, or something.

“But to come out and say, ‘You’re fired with immediate effect’, he must have done something a bit drastic for that to happen.

“Let’s assume they were unhappy with the results, which I can understand, that’s one thing, but to be fired immediately, that’s a different thing altogether.”

READ MORE – Red Bull document indicates potential detail behind Christian Horner dismissal

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Former Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was on hand to present Lando Norris with the FIA president’s medal for winning the Austrian Grand Prix.

Norris held off the challenge of team-mate Oscar Piastri to take an impressive victory around the Red Bull Ring to keep his title hopes up, as well and strengthening McLaren’s position at the top of the Constructors’ Championship.

The president’s medal, which has been awarded to all winning drivers since the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, is presented by the president himself, Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

However, the Emirati was unable to attend this weekend’s race in Spielberg, and Ecclestone, 94, deputised to place the medal around Norris’ neck.

“I think it’s really nice that the President gives a personal congratulations to the winning competitor,” he said.

“As he could not attend the Formula 1 race here in Austria, he asked me to present his medal for him which I am pleased and honoured to do.

“It was also great to be there, as though it might seem strange, this was the first time in almost 70 years in this sport that I’ve actually been on the podium! So, that was also nice.”

Ecclestone, previously owner of the Brabham team in the 1970s, founded the Formula 1 Group in 1987, and controlled the commercial rights to the sport for a further 30 years, before selling to Liberty Media.

His tenure secured his place as one of the most recognisable figures in F1 throughout this period.

The president’s medal is now handed out to drivers who win in a number of FIA-controlled competitions, including Formula E, the World Rally Championship, and the World Karting Championship.

READ MORE – Lando Norris resists Oscar Piastri to head McLaren 1-2 in Austria

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Bernie Ecclestone has sold his vast collection of Formula 1 cars, thought to be worth around £500 million, to the co-owner of Red Bull GmbH.

According to the MailOnline, Mark Mateschitz, the son of the late Red Bull founder Dietrich, who inherited his father’s 49 percent share in the business, has snapped-up the collection of 69 cars from Mr Ecclestone.

Mateschitz, who is said to be a family friend of the Ecclestones, has hinted the cars could be available for people to view, saying: “in the near future it will be made accessible to the public at an appropriate location,” and also said he may “expand” it.

It has not been disclosed how much the Austrian actually paid for the collection, described by auctioneers Tom Hartley Jnr Ltd as “quite simply the most important race car collection in the world.”

Ecclestone appeared happy with the sale, commenting: “These are unique vehicles. They have written sport history and marked technical milestones. They embody 70 years of F1 history.

“It means a great deal to me to know that this collection is now in the very best of hands.

“Mark is the best and most worthy owner we could ever imagine.”

Ferraris and ‘fan car’ – a collection full of F1 heritage

Ecclestone, 94, decided to sell the collection in order to save his family from being burdened with the collection in the event of his passing.

The collection comprises of a plethora of cars from various era, and features a strong presence of Ferraris, including the F2002, which helped Michael Schumacher to his fifth World Championship with 11 wins from 17 races.

Another notable car in the collection is the Brabham BT46, commonly known as the ‘fan car’, from 1978, when Ecclestone was owner of the team.

Designed by Gordon Murray, the car utilised a fan which extracted air from underneath, creating a huge amount of downforce.

It raced just once, at the Swedish Grand Prix, and took Niki Lauda to victory, but was pulled by the team thereafter due to concerns raised by other teams.

READ MORE – F1 Drive to Survive Season 7 Review: Episodes 3 & 4 offer differing results

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Ex-Formula 1 rights holder Bernie Ecclestone believes Lewis Hamilton will have “a lot of enemies” at Ferrari due to Charles Leclerc’s standing with the team.

Ecclestone, who ceded commercial rights of F1 when Liberty Media purchased them ahead of the 2017 season isn’t shy when it comes to critiquing Hamilton.

His latest comments are a fearful verdict that the Scuderia signing the seven-time champion will be a mistake.

Hamilton has a multi-year deal supposedly running three years but in conversation with the Telegraph, Ecclestone said “He won’t last that long.

“Piero Ferrari, who has taken him there, still thinks they’ve done the right thing,” adds Ecclestone. 

“I hope they have. I hope they haven’t just jumped in and end up wishing they hadn’t.”

‘Hamilton has lost motivation’ – Ecclestone

After 12 years at Mercedes, Hamilton, 40, is seeking a new challenge with Ferrari amid hopes to claim a record eight Drivers’ title.

Just three drivers aged 40 or over have managed this, the last being Jack Brabham in 1966.

At many points during his final, turbulent season with Mercedes, Hamilton cut an unmotivated figure, but his jubilation upon arriving in Maranello shows a figure with a new lease of life, likening his first laps in a Ferrari to his debut run in an F1 car.

Still, Ecclestone thinks Hamilton is unmotivated.

“I have my theory about this,” he said.

“It’s not the age with drivers, it’s how long they have been doing the same thing.

“I have thought with Lewis, ‘He’s getting tired. He has lost motivation.’ 

“If he had never won a world championship, it might be different, because then there would be an incentive to win one. But he has won seven.”

Hamilton joins new team-mate Charles Leclerc at Ferrari with the Monegasque driver having enjoyed six seasons with the Italian marque who signed him as an academy driver in his teenage years.

Ecclestone believes due to Leclerc’s strong foundation in the team, Hamilton will have “enemies” at Ferrari.

“The team is happy with Charles Leclerc, his team-mate,” Ecclestone said.

“Leclerc speaks their language [Italian], so they’ll be looking after him. 

“Even if Lewis does well, there’ll still be a lot of enemies, because he has suddenly arrived.” 

It’s a view that strikes in direct opposition to the collective thoughts of Piero Ferrari, Team Principal Fred Vasseur, Leclerc and the 1000s of Tifosi who welcomed Hamilton to Maranello last month with warmth, positivity and cheers.

Ecclestone takes issue with Hamilton’s off-track exploits

Beyond his judgement of Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, Ecclestone’s comments to the Telegraph also critiqued his off-track exploits.

The critiques point to Hamilton’s fashion sense and music exploits.

“Lewis gets himself up front in a way where you can dislike him,” Ecclestone said.

“How a guy who has won a few world titles and has a few dollars in the bank can dress the way he dresses… I’m not a fan of that. He has a lot of talent as a driver.

“As much as people credit him with? No, but still enough to win races. 

“I don’t know why he does all this other nonsense. He needs to get out of the music business and whatever else.”

However, Hamilton isn’t alone in expressing his fashion tastes in the F1 paddock, even if he is the man who was at the forefront of such an expression.

The same goes for his musical exploits, with team-mate Leclerc having released several tracks on Spotify thanks to his passion for the piano.

These ingredients make up the modern F1 driver and contributed to Hamilton’s move to Ferrari drawing worldwide attention.

READ MORE – F1 legend delivers warning to the rivals of Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari

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Bernie Ecclestone is selling his prized collection of 69, beautifully maintained historic Formula 1 machines that span decades of history.

Ecclestone sold the commercial rights to F1 at the end of the 2016 campaign, handing the charge over to Liberty Media.

The 94-year-old lives and breathes the sport to this day, and has devoted practically his entire life to it.

From a team employee, to then driver manager, Ecclestone rose through the sport to become Team Owner at Brabham.

Beyond that, he rose to lead the Formula One Constructors’ Association and seized control of the sport in 1987.

His collection of 69 F1 and Grand Prix racers is highly sought after and exclusive, featuring marvels such as the one-time raced Brabham BT46B ‘fan-car’ which Niki Lauda famously won the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix with.

Cars driven by Nelson Piquet, Mike Hawthorn, Michael Schumacher and more make up the collection, with Tom Hartley Jnr Ltd handling the sale.

“I have been collecting these cars for more than 50 years, and I have only ever bought the best of any example,” Ecclestone said.

“Whilst many other collectors over the years have opted for sports cars, my passion has always been for Grand Prix and Formula 1 cars.

“A Grand Prix and in particular a Formula 1 car is far more important than any road car or other form of race car, as it is the pinnacle of the sport, and all the cars I have bought over the years have fantastic race histories and are rare works of art.

“I love all of my cars but the time has come for me to start thinking about what will happen to them should I no longer be here, and that is why I have decided to sell them. After collecting and owning them for so long, I would like to know where they have gone and not leave them for my wife to deal with should I not be around.

“Tom [Hartley Jnr] is handling the sale for me because he knows the cars better than anyone else, his business is best placed to sell them, and I am guaranteed transparency which is important to me.

“Having collected what are the best and most original Formula 1 cars dating back to the start of the sport, I have now decided to move them on to new homes that will treat them as I have and look after them as precious works of art.”

‘This collection is the history of F1’

Tom Hartley Jnr added: “This is quite simply the most important race car collection in the world. There has never been and probably never will be a collection like it ever offered for sale again.

“The collection spans 70 years of Grand Prix and Formula 1 racing, and highlights include Mike Hawthorn, Niki Lauda, and Michael Schumacher World Championship-winning Ferraris, all of Bernie’s [Ecclestone] Brabhams including the famous ‘fan car’, and the Vanwall VW10, the car in which the great Stirling Moss won several Formula 1 Grands Prix on the way to Vanwall clinching the first ever Formula 1 Constructors’ World Championship in 1958, plus so much more.

“But, for me, the highlight of the collection has to be the Ferraris. Bernie has assembled a collection of Ferrari Formula 1 cars that today would be near-impossible to repeat.

“There is the famous Thin Wall Special, which was the first Ferrari to ever beat Alfa Romeo, the Alberto Ascari Italian Grand Prix-winning 375 F1, the Mike Hawthorn World Championship-winning Dino which Ferrari campaigned over three seasons before it was donated to the Henry Ford Museum, plus historically significant World Championship-winning Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher cars.

“Because Bernie has retained ownership of the Brabhams since they were new, and many of those cars have not been seen for decades, people can forget quite how special a team Brabham was.

“Brabham scored 22 Formula 1 Grand Prix wins, 24 Formula 1 Grand Prix pole positions, 25 Formula 1 Grand Prix fastest laps, and two Formula 1 World Championships under Bernie’s tenure. The team was also very innovative, fitting carbon brakes to its cars in the 1970s, and was the first to introduce in-race refuelling.

“Bernie was also the person who gave a young South African engineer named Gordon Murray a job – and other big names in motorsport such as Charlie Whiting and Herbie Blash were part of the Brabham boys.

“I feel very privileged that Bernie has entrusted the sale of his cars to my Tom Hartley Jnr business.

“Formula 1 cars are cars that I know particularly well, they are not just cars that I have a great personal interest in, but we at Tom Hartley Jnr actively buy and sell them, too. However, there has never been a collection like this one offered for sale, and no one in the world has a race car collection that comes close to Bernie’s.

“This is a great opportunity for a discerning collector to acquire cars that have never before been offered for sale, and it would be great to see them back on the track again.

“All of the cars on the Formula 1 grid today look the same. If you stripped them of their liveries, you’d struggle to know which one was a Williams and which was a Ferrari. But when you look at some of the Grand Prix cars from the early 1960s to the late 1970s, they’d very much be at home in The Museum of Modern Art.”

“This collection is the history of Formula 1.”

READ MORE – Bernie Ecclestone tips Lewis Hamilton to struggle at Ferrari

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Ex-Formula 1 owner Bernie Ecclestone has criticised Haas’ treatment of Mick Schumacher, insisting it used his “name “and wasn’t “interested” in his displays.

Schumacher embarked upon his F1 bow with the American squad in 2021, but he was dropped at the end of his sophomore campaign in favour of Nico Hulkenberg.

The German has been unable to salvage a return to the grid, with a venture in the World Endurance Championship with Alpine to be combined with Mercedes F1 reserve duties.

Erstwhile Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner indicated that a plethora of crashes – which he revealed to be in the estimate of $700,000 – cost Schumacher his F1 drive.

However, Ecclestone, who witnessed the career of Mick’s seven-time champion father when he ran the sport, believes Haas only cared about the positives of being aligned with the reputable Schumacher name.

“Mick got lost on the wrong team with the wrong people. At Haas they took his name. They were never interested in how good or bad he was,” Ecclestone told BILD.

The Netflix Drive to Survive docuseries revealed how Schumacher’s presence within the team attracted sponsors towards Haas, most notably German company 1&1 AG.

Ecclestone’s comments come after Steiner, who was not retained beyond 2023, argued Haas “wouldn’t be around” without him sourcing revenue during the Covid pandemic.

“Obviously, I think without me in 2020 it wouldn’t have been around anymore. But Gene Haas owns the team so in the end he’s free to do what he wants,” he told Sky Sports.

“I cannot accuse him [Gene Haas, Team Owner] of anything. I can accuse him but it doesn’t do anything because he can make his decisions, he is free to decide. 

“I am actually fine, my life will continue. I will have fun, I will stay around. Something will pop up. I’m doing good. In the end a good period in my life came to an end, but maybe an even better one starts,” he concluded.

Last year, Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff claimed that Steiner “would not have dared” to be outspoken about Schumacher’s performances if his father had been present.

“I can only say that his parents did nothing wrong in bringing him up,” Wolff said to the Swiss-German language newspaper Blick.

“And I claim that if Michael had accompanied his son during the two Haas years, Steiner would not have dared to treat Mick like that!”

But when informed about Wolff’s statement, Steiner admitted that it had been difficult to control the team amid the continuous spotlight attached to Schumacher’s actions.

“It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t easy to manage that one because there was a lot of pressure from outside because of his last name.”

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Ex-Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone believes that Mercedes would have avoided enduring a winless season in 2023 if Max Verstappen had been behind the wheel.

Verstappen maximised the superiority of Red Bull’s RB19 car to produce a record-breaking 2023 campaign that comprised 19 victories from 22 races and a huge total of 575 points.

Meanwhile, Mercedes struggled for the second consecutive year under the current regulations after electing to begin last season with the failed ‘zeropod’ concept.

Although it abandoned that solution midway through the season and pipped Ferrari to second, the German marque trailed a substantial 451 points adrift of Red Bull.

With Ferrari capitalising on the champion’s troubles in Singapore to bag the only non-Red Bull victory, Mercedes ended a season without a win for the first time since 2011.

And despite clinching third in the Drivers’ Championship, Ecclestone believes Hamilton, who is on a drought dating back to December 2021, was partly accountable.

“Hamilton failed a bit,” Ecclestone is quoted as having told the German publication BILD.

Ecclestone also criticised Mercedes’ George Russell, who admitted that 2023 marked “one of the worst seasons of my career” after only recording two podiums and lagging 59 points behind Hamilton.

“Russell wasn’t as good as he thought he was either,” the 93-year-old continued. “Still, they shouldn’t have lost so dramatically.”

Prior to Red Bull’s recent run of championship success, the Milton-Keynes-based squad had been unable to match Mercedes, who logged eight consecutive Constructors’ Championships upon the switch to V6 turbo-hybrid engines from 2014.

Ecclestone praised Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner for assembling the current operation that has proven practically untouchable across the past two seasons.

Along with Mercedes, the former F1 supremo is also convinced that Verstappen would have prevailed if he had been driving both Ferrari and McLaren’s 2023 challengers.

“They [Red Bull] have patiently endured Mercedes dominance, replacing each weak link one by one, developing the best team, the best design, the best car and the best driver,” he added.

“Christian Horner has done an excellent job. Max is currently the benchmark in every field.

“You could also put him in a McLaren, and probably a Ferrari or a Mercedes, and he would still win.”

Red Bull will launch its 2024 charger, the RB20, on the 15 February, with Mercedes set to pull the covers off its revamped W15 machine a day earlier at Silverstone.

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