Verstappen 'doesn't mind' who his 2020 team mate is

©RedBull

Heading into the final six races of the current season, Max Verstappen already knows that he will still be with the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team next season.

However the identity of his 2020 team mate remains unknown at this point, with both Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly still in the running. A return for Daniil Kvyat was ruled out by Dr Helmut Marko last week, and Renault's Nico Hulkenberg has also been dismissed as a candidate for the spot.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says that no decision about Verstappen's team mate will be made until the US Grand Prix in November. Verstappen himself insists that he has no idea how it will go.

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"They are the bosses, so they decide. I’m not a deciding factor in that," he told Crash.net on Thursday. "It’s up to them.

"I don’t mind who is sitting next to me," he insisted. "[Albon is] good, I enjoy working with him, he’s very relaxed. But it’s no different to Pierre.

“I also really liked working with Pierre," he added. "He’s also a really nice guy.

"I’m actually really happy that Pierre is now at Toro Rosso. He had a good performance in Singapore, so for sure that makes him also more comfortable."

"[As for Alex], I think we drive the car in pretty similar ways. Everyone has their own style, but I think we are both looking for the same thing. That is also important for the team."

Gasly started this season as Verstappen's team mate but was dropped from the senior squad over the summer break in a direct swap with Albon.

For his part, Albon says that the team hasn't laid down any hard and fast targets for him to meet in order to keep the seat into 2020.

“They’ve been letting me find my feet and learn from the team," he said. "There’s no targets for me right now.

"It’s just doing the races. There’s quite a few races to go so they haven’t been pushing me in any sense like that.

“I know there’s a lot of people thinking there’s a lot of pressure but there really isn’t at the moment," he insisted.

"They are very open to me, asking questions and all that kind of thing," he added. "They are very open to me, asking questions and all that kind of thing.

"It’s just a lot of learning and that kind of thing, not really focused on next year and all that kind of talk.

"I'm just focused on this in the present time and trying to maximise results. I know results are what is going to matter at the end of the day."

He acknowledged that engine change grid penalties such as the one he is set to receive at Sochi will make it more difficult to deliver those results, but added that he was confident his bosses would keep the circumstances in mind.

"Red Bull will know what they see," he said. “They’ll know if it’s a good job or not. They have enough data and globally to see how it’s been doing. I don’t see it as frustrating at all.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.