Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has declared Max Verstappen is the greatest driver ever to have competed for the team.
Horner has run Red Bull since the team entered F1 20 years ago. It has had 14 drivers in that time, five of which have won grands prix. One, Sebastian Vettel, matched Verstappen’s feat of winning four drivers’ championships.
However Horner says Verstappen must be regarded as the greatest driver to have sat in one of their cars.
“We’ve been blessed to have some very talented drivers here, and of course a four-time world champion in Sebastian Vettel,” he told the BBC. “But I think Max even takes it a step further than that.”
Although Horner is convinced Verstappen is the best driver in F1 today, he said it’s “difficult to judge” whether he should be considered the greatest ever.
“He’s certainly the greatest that is on the grid at this point in time,” said Horner. “How you compare generations has been [debated], but he has to be talked about in the same bracket now as some of the very greatest of all time in the sport.
“He’s got all the capability to achieve many records, but it will depend on us giving him the tools to do the job and how long he ultimately wants to stay in the sport.”
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Horner described Verstappen’s qualifying lap in Suzuka, where he beat the McLaren drivers to pole position by less than five-hundredths of a second, as an “outstanding” example of his ability.
“I could see on his compare time that I follow, you get intently sucked into how much is he up on the lap through every single corner. He came down to Spoon [curve] and he absolutely nailed it. And then you can see the compare time, he’s gaining a tenth and a half, two tenths on his previous lap and you’re looking at, okay, if he can hang on to this there’s a sniff of a front row here, it’s going to be close.
“You’re watching that compare time and he loses a hundredth on the straight and then he absolutely nailed the last chicane and found another, I think, three-quarters of a tenth of a second there. He had a good exit, kept it tight to the line and by the narrowest margins was good enough to get the pole.
“For me, watching him drive the car is a little bit like Roger Federer at the top of his game hitting a tennis ball. He does it with such precision and timing. Again, you watch that first sector in Jeddah and it’s such a joy to watch and see [him] totally at one, totally confident in himself and extracting every ounce of performance, and his timing and accuracy has been outstanding.”
Verstappen is contracted to remain at Red Bull until 2028. However as Red Bull’s form has dipped over the past 12 months he has only won three of the last nine grands prix, prompting speculation he could be lured to join a rival team.
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Red Bull F1 drivers
*Verstappen also won one race for Red Bull’s second team when it was known as Toro Rosso
*Gasly won one race for Red Bull’s second team when it was known as AlphaTauri
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