'Red Bull needs someone who doesn't want to go for the title himself'

Hulkenberg ideal teammate for Verstappen

The 24-year-old Dutch Van Splunteren was a guest at the GPblog podcast the Undercut to discuss the situation at Red Bull Racing. Max Verstappen's teammate for 2021 has still not been confirmed. Albon has not been officially written off yet, but a replacement for the underperforming Thai-Brit needs to be seriously looked into.

Who should come next to Verstappen? Van Splunteren: "I would go for Hulkenberg after all. Also because I give it to him. I like Hulkenberg and I think Sergio Perez, on the other hand, wants a little too much with regard to championships.

Experienced driver without a champion's dream

According to Van Splunteren, Red Bull Racing needs an experienced driver, but one who doesn't want to be at the forefront of the team at all costs: "If you look back at the pairing between Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barichello, for example, you can see that Barichello was also very experienced but that Schumacher really was number one.

Another example: "Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber; Webber was also very experienced. A name in Formula 1 that could also drive very consistently and well. Vettel was the new boy at the time, going really fast. At Red Bull, you need something like that".

Van Splunteren concludes: "Someone who is very fast and can develop a car: 'Max'. And someone who has a lot of experience and doesn't do anything stupid and doesn't necessarily want to go for the title himself".