F1 News: Tom Coronel On Being Max Verstappen’s Teammate – “Your Career Just Ends”
Dutch racing driver, Tom Coronel, has spoken out on what being Max Verstappen’s teammate does to the other driver’s career.
Coronel has competed in Formula 3, Formula Nippon, and the World Touring Car Championship, which he still races in.
This comes after Lando Norris revealed that before signing his long-term contract with McLaren he was also in talks with Red Bull but decided against it in the end. Coronel believes this was the best decision for the Belgian-British driver in order to preserve his career in the sport.
Norris is the number one driver for the McLaren team as Daniel Ricciardo parted ways with the team at the end of the 2022 season and they are welcoming rookie Oscar Piastri for the 2023 season. Ricciardo has made the move back to Red Bull who he raced for between 2014 and 2018 as their reserve driver.
Norris is in his contract until at least the end of the 2025 season. Coronel spoke about Norris’ choice of signing with McLaren during an interview with Formule1.nl. He said:
“Whether he should sit next to Max? No, then he will get the same as everyone else. Next to Max, your career just ends.”
Looking back over the last few years at Verstappen’s teammates, it is easy to see what Coronel is referring to. Verstappen has been a strong performer on the track since his F1 debut in 2015 at just 17-years-old. The two-time champion’s current teammate Sergio Perez has performed well but has not got close to Verstappen’s level. Before Perez, Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon drove alongside Verstappen and also failed to show their potential when being compared to the young driver.
Verstappen dominated the track throughout the 2022 season taking the championship win at the Japanese Grand Prix, taking the Red Bull team to win the constructor’s championship a week later at the Austin Grand Prix, and also setting the record for the number of race wins in one season with fifteen.
