Toto Wolff admitted he has no hatred for Max Verstappen despite there being little love lost at times between Red Bull and his Mercedes team.
The 2021 title race saw Verstappen go toe-to-toe with Lewis Hamilton in a duel for the ages. And things turned ugly on several occasions as the tension rose, with the on-track battle turning into a war of words away from the circuit.
And that rivalry is mirrored in the team principals Wolff and Christian Horner who, to this day, struggle to see eye to eye on many subjects. But the Austrian is keen to not let any tension in the F1 world get in the way of his personal life.
And he proved as much when recounting a conversation he had with a potential nanny for his son, who brought up the subject during an interview. The nanny, Wolff said, expected to have her application dismissed out of hand because she was Dutch.
"I asked why, and she thought I hated Max Verstappen. But I really like Max," Wolff told De Telegraaf. "Max, in combination with his car, is the benchmark. He has matured so much and doesn't make mistakes anymore.
"And he's only 25 years old, right? You wouldn't think someone of that age is so mature, also on his outlook on life. It's really impressive. Whether it's Max, Lewis, Michael Schumacher or Ayrton Senna, they're all different but they all have a raw edge.
"I like those kinds of people – difficult people. That often means they have more ambition and more dedication. This not only applies to drivers, but also to the top people within a team."
After watching on as Verstappen beat his driver Hamilton in that 2021 title fight, Wolff made a prediction about the Dutchman's future which turned out to be spot on. "This was not Max's last title," he said. "He is a brilliant driver. It's completely normal that the battle was so intense last year. It's part of racing.
"If the situation had been reversed, we would have claimed the trophy and been happy about it. Max performed strongly all last year and he missed out on a lot of points. He deserved to be world champion."
