According to a GRANDPRIX247 report, David Coulthard believes Max Verstappen is already one of the biggest stars of F1 but adds that the two titles he has may be the last he achieves if he is without a winning car, but they may also be the first of several.
The 13-time Grand Prix winner turned pundit complemented the Dutchman in his Formule1 2022 F1 world championship season review. He said that the 25-year-old driver crushed the season stylishly by being unstoppable, as he won his second championship in two years without argument as opposed to the last year when Michael Masi’s actions in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix stained the victory on a controversial night that still splits F1 fans’ views.
Verstappen has had an incredible career up to this point since making headlines for his F1 debut at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix when he drove for Toro Rosso and set the record for the youngest driver to start a race. By the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, Red Bull already believed in their prodigy and promoted him alongside Daniel Ricciardo at the cost of the languishing Daniil Kvyat.
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Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix on his ‘senior’ team debut at the age of 18, and since then has amassed 76 podium finishes, 35 victories in 163 starts in the top division, and two consecutive F1 championships, signaling the end of the Lewis Hamilton era and the beginning of the Max Verstappen era.
However, Coulthard said: “The Verstappen era may be over after two titles, not because he’s not a brilliant driver, but he may not have a title-winning car in the coming seasons. Nobody knows that in advance.
“Lewis could have been a nine-time instead of a seven-time F1 champion. At the same time, he has often been in a good car, and someone like [Fernando] Alonso has not.
“Alonso should have had more than two titles but his choices and the racing gods have put him in the position where he will drive for Aston Martin next year and the chances of him becoming champion are slim,”
Travel back in time to 2005 and 2006, the two seasons where Alonso managed to win the title in his own right. At the time, more was expected of the Spaniard, but those two F1 title wins remain the pinnacles of his F1 career and serve as a cautionary tale about staying with a world championship-winning team rather than moving to one that has a hungry rookie.
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Coulthard commented on Verstappen’s standing at such a young age, saying: “Just as Lewis doesn’t need nine world titles for me to consider him one of the greatest drivers in the sport, Max is already one of the greats. You would also have to be a f*cking idiot to claim that he only achieved this because he was in a good car.”
“After all, none of his teammates have been able to measure up to him. Max is a beast on the track, a winning machine who doesn’t give a shit about what we have to say or what anyone else has to say. He’s unbelievable,”
As for the winning car that he or any other star driver in Formula 1 requires to complete the task at hand, Red Bull has Adrian Newey on their side, which was plainly obvious this season, as the RB18 started off as a dependable piece of machinery, but Ferrari seemed to have the advantage at first with their formidable F1-75.
However, in a Newey tradition, the RB18 gradually became even better as the season went on, especially in Verstappen’s hands; 17 victories in 22 races, 15 of them by Max, is how amazing it became. Expect nothing less in the upcoming seasons.
Always been a fan since i first saw him drive. A great talent.
Exactly