Max Verstappen is arguably one of the best drivers of all time in Formula 1 having now entered the exclusive club of four-time world champions.
It comes off the back of four dominant back-to-back seasons for Verstappen, who broke into the top three all-time win list at the end of his 2023 season after winning 19 out of a possible 22 races.
It was a season that mimicked McLaren’s 1988 season when Ayrton Senna and Alan Prost took 15 wins out of a possible 16 races, although Red Bull’s win percentage with the RB19 was higher at 95% versus 93% for the MP4/4.
Although Verstappen only followed up with nine wins in 2024, it was one of his toughest seasons after going up against McLaren’s Lando Norris in a title fight. Verstappen broke two records previously held by Senna and Lewis Hamilton, on the way to securing his fourth title.
Discussing Verstappen on the Pelas Pistas podcast, journalist Tom Clarkson noted something Gerhard Berger once told him when he compared Verstappen to Senna.
Gerhard Berger explains why Max Verstappen is better than Ayrton Senna
One of Verstappen’s victories against Norris this season at Imola came just hours after he participated in a 24-hour sim race with Team Redline. It was an impressive victory given he was up in the middle of the night, although Red Bull later told Verstappen he was not allowed to do late sessions.
Berger believes this extra practice in the sim helps separate Verstappen from the rest, as it makes him a better racer.
“I had a really interesting chat with Gerhard Berger about Max. I was interviewing him in his house in Austria and he’s got one room with all of his racing memorabilia, and the only helmet of one driver that he has other than his own is Max Verstappen,” said Clarkson.
“So that caught my eye and I said ‘Why Max?’ and he said ‘I think Max is unbelievable’ and then he said ‘Actually, I think he might be better than Ayrton’ which is a big statement given they were teammates.
“Then he said ‘It’s not a talent thing, I don’t think Max is more talented, it’s the sim racing. It wasn’t an option for Ayrton, but if you’re a racing driver and every day you’re doing a race start and every day you’re on the sim, repetition and muscle memory, you will become a better racing driver as often as Max does.’ So he thinks that gives him the edge over Senna.”
Max Verstappen ‘lucky’ that no rival dominated F1 during Red Bull downfall
When Norris emerged as the main title threat to Verstappen, McLaren looked unstoppable while Red Bull started to suffer from problems.
The team went into the wrong development direction, with Red Bull breaking one of the ‘golden rules’ of this current generation of cars with the RB20.
READ MORE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
Former F1 driver Alex Wurtz says Verstappen is ‘lucky’ that none of Red Bull’s rivals dominated, as McLaren also faced competition from Ferrari and Mercedes midway through the year.
He would go on to achieve a feat not seen in 40 years when he won the title in the third-best car of the year, which Damon Hill thinks is a stat pretty much ‘says it all’ about Verstappen.
Leave feedback about this