“He makes mistakes more frequently” – Nelson Piquet gives his opinion on who he feels is better between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton narrowly won the season-opening Bahrain GP, with Max Verstappen giving the reigning champion a run for his money. This impressed triple world champion Nelson Piquet, who went on to claim that Verstappen “would smash Hamilton” had they both been in Mercedes.
“First of all, we have to consider that F1 is a category with different cars, so it’s very difficult to make a direct comparison between two drivers if they are not on the same team. But if Max were driving for Mercedes, I’m sure that he would smash Hamilton.
Max Verstappen is more aggressive
The Spaniard thinks the Dutchman is more aggressive, which implies more mistakes, but that is what makes him stand out. Hamilton on the other hand has a complying teammate Valtteri Bottas who seems happy just to get on the podium. It remains to be seen if Verstappen will replace Bottas next season, and whether we will finally get to witness who smashes whom.
“Max is more aggressive. He may make mistakes more frequently due to this aggressiveness, but in my opinion, he’s better than Hamilton. Things are too easy for Hamilton to win it all with Bottas by his side as a second driver.
“It’s a little bit like Mansell and myself in Williams, with the other drivers far behind. I won the 1987 championship, and I wasn’t driving like before, because I had the accident at the beginning of the year and had field depth problems. But I won that championship, with a bit of luck. I should have won in 1986, but won in 1987.
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