“Wants to Humiliate People!” F1 Insider Exposes Max Verstappen’s Brutal Mindset
Former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley hails Max Verstappen as a 'complete driver' who humiliates people purely by his performances.
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Max Verstappen (via Red Bull)
- Max Verstappen is praised for his relentless competitiveness and dedication to winning.
- Former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley expresses a desire to work with Verstappen, calling him a "pure competitor."
- Smedley highlights Verstappen's motivation to outperform rivals, describing him as the "ultimate competitor."
Max Verstappen has often been hailed as the people’s favorite because of his ruthless mindset and determination to win. The Dutchman hasn’t been the easiest to deal with at times, as shown in his multiple conversations with his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase. However, former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley talked highly of Verstappen and how he’d like to be his race engineer if he could.
Rob Smedley was one of the more respected race engineers at Ferrari back in the day. He has partnered up with drivers like Felipe Massa and achieved great success. However, he ended his career at the end of the 2018 season to spend more time with his family. Now, Smedley has appeared on a podcast and talked about the driver that he would like to partner up with if he were given a choice.
Rob Smedley did not have to think twice before claiming that he would like to work alongside Max Verstappen as his race engineer. Smedley simply stated that the Dutchman was his type of driver and was a pure competitor on the track. He continued that Verstappen remained a ‘winning machine’ and is always extremely competitive, no matter the situation.
Because he’s my type of driver, He’s just a competitor. Max is the epitome of somebody who brings his own motivation and drive every hour of every day, right? He is so motivated. He is a winning machine. He wants to win. He is so competitive, right? So, there’s never any doubt about that, right?
Rob Smedley said on the High Performance podcast.
Max Verstappen also hasn’t taken a day off from his job and has always shown up with extreme dedication to win races and achieve impressive results. Rob Smedley applauded this habit of the four-time champion and joked about how people wanted him to take atleast one day off. However, Verstappen does not care about it and shows up every day like it is his job to humiliate people. Smedley labeled the 28-year-old as the ‘ultimate competitor’ who achieved success as if it were child’s play.
He just keeps going and going and going. I’m sure most of them are looking at him thinking, ‘Come on, Max. Just have a day off. Please just have a weekend off so like we can all like do this.’ But he doesn’t because it’s not enough to beat people. It’s almost to the point where he wants to humiliate people. And I don’t mean that in a negative way. But that’s what goes through his mind. He is the ultimate competitor.
Rob Smedley added.
Rob Smedley reveals why Max Verstappen is a ‘complete driver’
Max Verstappen is a racer through and through. He only cares about motorsports and nothing else. It is further proved by his multiple entries in various categories of motorsports. The Dutchman does not hesitate to miss a public event just to partake in a race. Given these qualities in Verstappen, Rob Smedley labels him a complete driver, which further sets him apart from his rivals.
Rob Smedley reckoned that Max Verstappen found the motivation to perform well from somewhere despite the circumstances. The four-time champion only worried about increasing the gap to the rivals on track and outperforming everyone else. Moreover, Verstappen had a lot of competency, which was expected in an F1 driver. However, he has that extra edge of self-belief and being able to motivate himself, which sets him apart from the rivals.
He finds that motivation from somewhere, like the gap to the next best driver on the grid isn’t big enough. And that is a powerful drug when you have somebody on your side like that, who is so self-motivated. You have to have all the competency, and all the ability and all of that. That’s kind of a given, you’re a Formula 1 driver. But having that extra edge of self-belief and being able to motivate yourself and being able to motivate those people around you, that to me is what a complete driver is.
Rob Smedley noted.
Certainly, Max Verstappen will be the driver to watch in the 2026 season as Formula 1 heads into the dawn of new regulations. Despite initial concerns surrounding the new regulations, Verstappen will definitely find a way to extract maximum performance from the car. Now, the four-time champion will be hungrier for the title win in 2026 following his disappointing loss in the previous year.
Read More: Lando Norris Backs Max Verstappen’s Brutal 2026 F1 Car Criticism
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