(Motorsport-Total.com) – It’s not easy as a team-mate with a Verstappen on the other side of the pit. Enrique Bernoldi can also tell you a thing or two about it. The Brazilian was team-mate of Jos Verstappen, father of Max Verstappen, at Arrows in the 2001 Formula 1 season and remembers a few tense moments.
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Enrique Bernoldi and Jos Verstappen competed for Arrows in Formula 1 in 2001
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“I came to Arrows with (Helmut) Marko’s support,” reports Bernoldi in an exclusive interview with the Brazilian edition of ‘Motorsport.com‘. “He asked me, ‘What do you want?’ I said I want to be world champion. “
“He said, ‘If (Jos) Verstappen beats you, you’re out.’ A clear announcement. If the guy wants to be world champion, he can’t be beaten by Verstappen. So I came up with the idea of beating him in every session . R.) also succeeded. “
Right from the start “in a field of tension”
But Jos Verstappen, much more experienced than Bernoldi, quickly made the frontlines clear. “He couldn’t lose to a rookie. But I had Marko in my ear and couldn’t lose to Verstappen. So we were already in an area of tension,” the now 42-year-old remembers the team configuration.
“In the first race Jos said to me in front of Marko: ‘You’re my second Brazilian team-mate. I had one (Ricardo Rosset) for a whole year and I beat him 16-0 in qualifying.’ Marko didn’t look bad either . “
“The first time I qualified before him was in Brazil. Then Imola, Barcelona, Austria and he started to ‘lose’ himself. He started to get nervous because I always qualified before him. Then, in Magny -Cours, in Friday practice, he turned and drove into the gravel, “remembers Bernoldi.
Bernoldi at a disadvantage – and still faster
“When I saw that, I celebrated. You always want to be better than your team-mate. If he wasn’t driving, it was better for me because he couldn’t set up the car properly. But when I pitted, that said Team: ‘Get out of the car.’ “
Photo gallery: Legendary Formula 1 teams a. D.
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They gave Verstappen Bernoldi’s car: “He was driving my car and I wasn’t driving. This situation happened twice. Once because of that spin and the other time because of the engine. So I could only get back in the car for qualifying. And I used Brembo- Brakes, but Jos those from Hitco, which were very hard. “
“So I got back to a car that was unfamiliar to me and had to be quick on the first lap, which wasn’t ideal. But the two times he drove my car, I was faster in qualifying. So I got him said: ‘Don’t drive my car anymore, I’m faster than you anyway.’ I was very angry. “
Strange encounter with little Verstappen
Otherwise, Bernoldi avoided any exchange with Verstappen. “My race engineer was Italian, my engine engineer was French and spoke Italian, my data engineer was Belgian and spoke Italian, so we always talked in Italian so he couldn’t know what we were talking about,” he says.
“I didn’t talk to him anymore, but to Sophie (wife) just to provoke him.” The feud was not hidden from Max Verstappen, who was still young at the time.
“One time, before a race, Max came to Arrows’ RV and stared at me. He probably heard his dad talk badly about me at home, so he stared at me.” But the encounter became even stranger.
“He went into the bathroom and had a plastic boot on. I heard noises and looked. Then he stepped into the toilet bowl and the boot got stuck. I picked it up and handed it to his mother. The boot was still on, she had to take it with her. That is the only story I have with Max. “
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