F1: Max Verstappen is the new Ayrton Senna

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Former McLaren coordinator Jo Ramirez believes that Max Verstappen is the new Ayrton Senna of this generation. And given how he destroys teammates and everyone else in F1, who can disagree.

Like Senna, in the rain he is unstoppable.

“He has taken the role of Ayrton Senna in modern F1 and with that car, that team and Adrian Newey, he is almost unstoppable.”

“It is very hard to speak about myself,’ said Verstappen. “I would prefer other people speaking about me.

“But one thing I always tried to work on since I was a little kid is being adaptable in the car. If we went to a new track, my father (former F1 driver Jos) told me to try to be fast as quickly as possible. Some people would say you have an hour to get up to speed, but my father said, “No, you have to do it in three laps”. I always try to force myself to do that.

“People ask what my driving style is. I find that hard to answer because I adapt in this regard, too. If the car is understeering, you adapt to how the car is quick in that way. If it is oversteering, you adapt. Same with tracks, some have high tire degradation, some have more grip than others. You have to adapt to the limits of the place you are at or the environment you are in. It is key to driving well.

“I never think of being brave. I feel confident, and if I feel confident in what I have around me, I can maybe brake a little later. But you can sometimes have the best driver in a poor car, one that is not capable of braking later.”

Zero Desire to Race in Indy 500

Would he possibly follow Aston Martin’s double world champion Alonso to America to compete in the Indianapolis 500?

“No, I wouldn’t,” he told the DailyMail. “If you have had a career in F1, and it has all gone well, I don’t see it as worth taking the risk.

“Of course, I want to win and it would be an amazing race to win, and I have a lot of respect for the drivers who do it. But first of all, I have never raced an oval, so that would take a bit of time to get used to. And the sensation of having a shunt and hitting a fence and seeing people being really badly injured makes it not really worth it for me. I’d like to keep my legs.”