Verstappen Compared To F1 World Champions By Brundle
F1Monday, 18 December 2023 at 11:00
Updated at Monday, 18 December 2023 at 12:27
With increasing success, Max Verstappen has been compared more and more to the greatest of the sport, and Martin Brundle chimed in the conversation recently.
With his third World Championship achieved in 2023, Max Verstappen equaled records of legendary F1 drivers like Ayrton Senna, Jackie Steward, Nelson Piquet, and Niki Lauda.
Having accomplished so much at the age of 26 means the Dutchman has great potential to aim for a lot more. Even though he is hopefully far from his retirement, many fans already include him in the GOAT debates.
One F1 fan suggested Verstappen has the raw speed of Senna, the smoothness of Alain Prost, and the metronomic ability of Michael Schumacher in the Sky's Formula 1 Q&A, and Martin Brundle responded:
"I think all of the above. I did a Q&A last night that I was hosting with Alain Prost and I asked him that sort of question. As a four-time world champion who's about to be potentially matched by Max, and he said he never wants to compare drivers."
Prost raced alongside World Champions like Keke Rosberg, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansel, and Damon Hill in his career, and Brundle is convinced that gives him authority to speak on this matter.
"He said he had five world champions as teammates, and they were all completely different, including him. And I thought, well, if that's what Alan Prost thinks, then it's hard to argue against that."
AlphaTauri's retiring team principal, Franz Tost, the two best drivers he worked with in his 19 years at Toro Rosso were Sebastian Vettel and the Dutchman. Brundle named Verstappen's qualities that make him so great:
"What I do think is that Max has got the talent, the touch - like a Senna sort of feel for grip and he's now got the confidence and the experience to deliver it in qualy, race, rain, shine, red flags, restart."
Verstappen showed his speed for sure, but the 2023 season mainly underlined his consistency as he performed well in every single race no matter the circumstances.
The 26-year-old was the only driver to finish every single race. Moreover, he scored points in every single race of the season and broke unimaginable records. Brundle suggests the Dutchman is "the complete package" now.
"He’s getting like Michael and Lewis where he's got the full traffic management, the big overtake, playing the percentage game. He's a combination of all of those, but does that make him better than all of those? Not necessarily, but he he's the real deal and he's the complete package."
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