Red Bull chief Christian Horner has spoken about what it's like to work alongside Max Verstappen as the team bids to end Mercedes' Formula One dominance.
Verstappen trails Lewis Hamilton by just five points heading into this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix, as Formula One heads into the final months of the season.
Just six races remain on the calendar following a season with plenty of drama, where Red Bull and Mercedes have gone head-to-head for the title.
Amidst it all, Verstappen has once again improved and could be set for a dominant era of his own in the sport if he dethrones Hamilton and Horner has discussed what it's like to work alongside the Dutch ace.
“Max is probably one of the most straightforward drivers I’ve worked with because he’s binary in his approach. He appreciates absolute openness and honesty. He doesn’t give a lot away to the public, he’s quite a private individual," he told Channel 4.
“And I think when you actually spend time with him and you get to know the real Max Verstappen, he’s just a really nice young guy and totally passionate about his racing. But he’s super-hungry and so motivated – I don’t think I’ve ever met a driver so motivated.
“So in terms of working with him, managing him, you just sit down and have an open conversation and he will listen. He may have a differing opinion, but by the end of it you always converge to a solution. And he never takes anything away, nothing festers. You deal with it, move on.”
Horner also discussed the crashes involving Verstappen and Hamilton this season, which occurred at Silverstone and Monza.
“Max was obviously massively frustrated with Silverstone and how it went down because he had done the hard work, he won the sprint race. It obviously got pretty tasty down the Wellington Straight and then the accident, and it was a massive accident, 51G. But he quickly brushed himself down and said on the Monday ‘if I had to do the race again today, I could do it’.
“You’ve got two guys going for the World Championship, it’s the biggest trophy in global motorsport, and both of them shouldn’t have been there. Max had an issue at his pit-stop, then Lewis had an issue at his stop, so the two of them arrived together at the first corner as Lewis was exiting the pits.
“Inevitably the result was what it was, and the most important thing from that is that both of them were okay.”