Surer happy with 'bad guy' Verstappen: 'You need that in Formula 1'
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The 'war of words' between Max Verstappen and George Russell lasted across multiple F1 weekends, after the Dutchman called out the Mercedes driver for the way he acted at the stewards' room following the qualifying session. Former F1 driver Marc Surer enjoyed that very much, and according to the Swissman, F1 will always need an anti-hero, which is Verstappen in this case.
Surer thinks it is a "good thing" that Verstappen can be polarising in the competition after his conflict with Russell. "You need a bad guy in Formula 1. There has always been one. And now we have one again," the Swissman told Formel1.de.
The former F1 driver is sure Verstappen and Russell will be able to settle their feud next season. When Surer was asked whether Verstappen would be a successor in terms of attitude of his girlfriend's father, Nelson Piquet, the analyst believes so. The two drivers were teammates at Brabham back in 1985."Exactly. But as I said, you need that in Formula 1. We have Lando Norris as the good guy, Russell as maybe the schemer and then Max Verstappen, who sometimes goes off book. That's great."
Liam Lawson with similar approach
Furthermore, the 73-year-old believes there might be two 'anti-heros' driving for Red Bull Racing in the 2025 season. Surer rated Liam Lawson's battle with Sergio Perez positively, when the VCARB driver went wheel-to-wheel against the Mexican, and they also ended up making contact in their fight on track. Accordingo to Surer, that moment showed that 'nothing would stop' the driver from New Zealand.
Whether Lawson ends up getting promoted from the VCARB remains to be seen. Red Bull's decision are yet to be announced after the meeting they had a week ago, where they evaluated Sergio Perez's performance.
This article was written in collaboration with Corwin Kunst
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