“He’s beaten a hungry Hamilton, a fit Hamilton” – Mark Webber is astounded by the genius of fellow Red Bull Max Verstappen and how he broke the dominance of Lewis Hamilton.
Max Verstappen is a once-in-a-generation driver, his brilliance enough to thwart the title-winning run of Lewis Hamilton in the most glorious of ways (read: last lap of the season).
He’s impressed one and all, no more than his fellow former Red Bull driver Mark Webber, the Aussie awestruck at the maturity level Verstappen operates at, rightfully calling him “phenomenal”.
“The maturity he’s showed for his age when he came into the sport, he has biblical levels of confidence and feel at the highest level. These cars are not easy to get on top of early.
“Through karting and F3, Red Bull took the risk, and he is right up there in terms of what Red Bull stands for to compete and race hard.
“Verstappen has captivated a nation. Look at the Dutch Grand Prix this year. That was phenomenal for the sport, a new benchmark for that.
“These drivers come along once every 10 years. Verstappen is absolutely phenomenal, and the sport should be embracing him.
“He was watching Formula 1 for a long time, he saw Lewis dominating the sport and was like ‘I want a piece of that’.
“He’s not overwhelmed by individuals, he doesn’t play people on their reputations, he doesn’t drive on their reputations.
“He just sees it as ‘This is my turf, I’m a racing driver and I’m going to make my presence felt’, which he does extraordinarily well.
“So I think for him to know he went against Lewis…yes, he had the puncture in Baku, the shunt in Silverstone, which was Lewis’ fault, Max was a bit out of order in Saudi I felt.
“So they’ve had their trials and tribulations but ultimately he knows he’s beaten a hungry Hamilton, a fit Hamilton.”
