F1: Verstappen is “one of the all-time F1 greats” – Newey

Max Verstappen is well on his well to destroying all of Lewis Hamilton’s F1 records, and Adrian Newey calls him one of the all-time F1 greats.

Red Bull’s chief technical officer has worked with many great drivers over the years, and looking at the data the team collects from the car, he has keen knowledge when a driver is doing things with the car that other’s simply cannot.

Verstappen destroys all his teammates because he can drive a car setup in a way that no other driver can do.  It is the fastest way to drive a car, but requires knife-edge reflexes and balance.

• Verstappen uses a short-corner driving technique only the true greats can do.
• Verstappen drives a pointy and loose car that his teammates can’t handle
• Verstappen understands how to get his tires into the perfect temperature range without losing lap time.

“Max is clearly one of the all-time greats, and he’s at the top of his game,” he told Autosport. “Since he won the championship in ’21 I think that took a took a lot of pressure off himself, and his driving has got a lot better for that.

“He’s totally in tune. The thing about Max, like all the real greats, is that you have the impression he almost drives the car on automatic, which leaves plenty of processing power to think about everything.”

“For both the driver and the team to achieve that level of consistency and reliability is fantastic,” he said.

“Never in my career have I been associated with a team where we’ve managed to win the first 13 races. Previously, it’s been like the first six or something, but it’s nothing like this.

“The team is obviously working very well together, it’s a tribute to everybody kind of really getting on doing their job.

“But the funny thing is I’ve been in this position before where you’re not consciously doing anything different, it’s just everything gels.”