Verstappen was warned against repeating Alonso's fate

      Bernie Collins, a former chief strategist at Aston Martin F1 and now an expert at Sky Sports, believes that Max Verstappen needs to carefully weigh everything before deciding whether to move to another team.

      Otherwise, there is a risk of repeating the fate of Fernando Alonso, who has repeatedly made the wrong choice over the years of his long career, which is why, with all his talents in Formula 1, he has won only two titles.

      There has long been talk that Max is ready to part ways with Red Bull Racing, with which he won four championships in a row, but the question remains, what will his next team be? There are periodic rumors of interest from Mercedes and Aston Martin, but Bernie Collins doubts that her former team will be able to quickly achieve a higher level of results.  

      When Collins participated in the Indo Sport Podcast, she was asked to share her opinion on whether Verstappen could set a new record for the number of titles, i.e. become an eight-time world champion.

      "No, I don't think so," Bernie replied. – I am very concerned about how Aston Martin will develop in the future. I understand that there are high hopes associated with the arrival of Adrian Newey, but the team will have to switch to new Honda engines and new gearboxes, and these are two very difficult tasks that will have to be solved when the new technical regulations come into force.

      Serious challenges await the team. There can be great difficulties with the gearbox alone. I think Mercedes probably has a better chance of successfully solving this problem – however, maybe Max will transfer to Mercedes?..

      It seems to me that people tend to underestimate Fernando Alonso, for example, and he's a great driver – he's always been a great driver and still is. But he only won two championships because he chose the wrong teams to join at different stages of his career.

      At the same time, there were other drivers who made the right decisions and won championships because they were at the right moment at the right time – just remember the history of Brawn GP.

      In order for Max to set a new record, he must make an extremely important choice. People usually evaluate the talents of racers. although, in fact, something else is more important: you need to choose the right moment to join the right team. And here the important position is taken by the rider's management, i.e. those people who advise him on what decision to make."