Max Verstappen insists his relationship with Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo will not be damaged, should the team find itself in a position to fight for the Formula 1 championship in 2018.
Red Bull lacked pace during the opening races of the 2017 season but closed the gap to rivals Mercedes and Ferrari across the second half of the campaign, having strongly developed its chassis.
Verstappen and Ricciardo claimed three victories between them, and although the duo never went up against one another in those races, they were involved in a couple of on-track duels.
The most notable was at the Hungarian Grand Prix when they made contact, prompting a radio outburst from Ricciardo, but the pair quickly moved past the incident and Verstappen puts that down to having a mutal respect for one another.
"We have a lot of respect for each other and frankly, in my racing career so far, I've never had that much to do with a team-mate," the Dutchman told SpeedWeek.
"Even if we give everything to fighting hard with one another on the track, Daniel is a great guy and we have a lot of fun off the track."
Verstappen insists the chance of a title battle this season won't come between them.
"We respect each other. Sure, when you fight for the title, it gets more intense on the track, but in the end you always come back to that mutual respect.
"You have to accept when one is faster and I think we can. If one of us has a good race, then the other one says that he really deserves it. And I think that's very important.
"So I hope that we will be team-mates for a very long time."
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