Nico Hulkenberg once revealed Max Verstappen’s ‘friction’ with legendary F1 driver in paddock briefings

Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen has never been someone to keep his opinions to himself or change his approach to appease others.

When Max Verstappen made his debut for Toro Rosso in 2015, he immediately made an impact, finishing seventh in his second Grand Prix in Malaysia, before going on a run of scoring points in eight of the last ten races of the campaign.

Just a few races into the following season, Verstappen was promoted to the senior Red Bull team, replacing Daniil Kvyat.

He immediately set the tone for the success that would follow by winning on his debut at the Spanish Grand Prix, but his early years with Red Bull weren’t free from controversy.

Verstappen crashed during qualifying at Monaco that year, but his most high-profile incident occurred at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Dutchman qualified second, but a poor start led to him hitting Kimi Raikkonen, who collected Sebastian Vettel, ruining both of their chances of finishing on the podium.

“It’s clear what happened,” Vettel said in an interview with Sky Sports. “The room I gave Kimi was not for three cars.

“Max had a bad start and was out of the fight, but decided to [get involved]. We had three cars with not enough room.

“If l had to do it again, l would give a little bit more room, and at least l would make it – l don’t know about the two cars on the inside.”

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Nico Hulkenberg recalls ‘friction’ between Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel

On a 2016 episode of the Dutch talk show Pauw, Nico Hulkenberg was asked about Verstappen and his conduct on the track.

The German driver explained: “The very hard defensive moves you see Max do are really extreme.

“Sometimes, he does them very, very late so that the car behind him doesn’t have much chance to do anything else, and I think that will happen one day [a big crash].

“It will happen one day that he will have an accident. Yes, it will happen, but that is also a part of racing.

“[Big crashes] are not a part of it, but it can happen, and you have to understand that we drive on the limit all the time, and if you just race and brake late, and we have to make decisions and do things in seconds, sometimes it goes wrong.

“I do think that Seb Vettel will talk to Max in the next driver’s meeting on Friday morning, and that will be long! I will bring something to eat because Seb is going to talk to Max, and that takes a long time.

“There is a bit of friction, and of course, there is competition. I think that belongs in F1, and that’s also what racing is, what people want to see.”

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Max Verstappen caught out Nico Hulkenberg later in the 2016 Formula 1 season

Ironically, just a few races after Hulkenberg talked about Verstappen’s driving style, the Red Bull driver was caught out by the German.

At the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Hulkenberg spun Verstappen after making light contact with the back of his car.

It was a small talking point while Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton fought for the championship, and while Hulkenberg went on to finish seventh, Verstappen came home in P4.

Verstappen told Vettel to go ‘back to school’ at the Mexican Grand Prix that season, highlighting that they didn’t always see eye-to-eye.

However, Verstappen keeps breaking Vettel’s Red Bull records, and after years of being rivals, the German is now watching on as his successor goes from strength to strength at the team that helped him create his Formula 1 legacy.