Max Verstappen responds to Daniel Ricciardo Le Mans tilt: 'He's a smart man'

Max Verstappen has responded to Daniel Ricciardo's suggestion that the pair team up with Sebastian Vettel for a crack at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, joking that his former Red Bull team-mate knows exactly what he is doing.

Ricciardo, who retired from F1 last year and now serves as a Ford Racing ambassador, floated the idea of an all-star endurance line-up with Verstappen and Vettel on a recent podcast appearance.

Speaking to media, including RacingNews365, Verstappen gave the idea a cautious welcome.

"He's a smart man to choose me in the car," quipped the four-time F1 champion.

"But we have to see. It just depends on a lot of things. For me, if I want to do it, I want to do it properly with really good prep.

"At the moment, I cannot do that. I don't have the free time to dedicate to a Le Mans project with all the other things that I'm doing outside of Formula 1."

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Verstappen - 'A conversation already had'

The topic is not a fresh one for Verstappen, who revealed the subject has already come up in previous discussions with Ricciardo.

"It's not new to me, of course," confirmed Verstappen. "Yeah, we have spoken.

"From my side or his side, I don't think we are the types who always need to share everything, right? We talk about a lot of things in the background.

"But I think he has said it himself. He doesn't see himself coming back for a whole season. But the one-offs are interesting, and why not?

"But again, if we do something like that, and he will agree for sure, it needs to be proper, for a chance to win.

"And for a chance to win against people who do it for a whole season, you need to be really well prepared, so you just need to find the right timing."