David Coulthard: Verstappen is a winning machine

David Coulthard is convinced that Max Verstappen can safely be counted among the best drivers in Formula 1 history, even if his further career develops in such a way that he remains a two-time world champion.

Verstappen is now 25 years old, but he already has the experience of eight full seasons in Formula 1, in which he took 35 wins, just 77 podiums and 20 starts from pole positions.

“The Verstappen era may end after two titles: although he is an excellent driver, it may turn out that in the following seasons he will not have a car with which to fight for victories,” writes Coulthard in his season review on the pages of the Dutch edition of Formula 1. – Nobody knows this in advance. Lewis Hamilton could already be a nine-time world champion, not seven-time. But at the same time, he often had a good car – unlike, say, such a racer as Fernando Alonso.

Alonso should have won more than two titles, but because of the decisions he made at the time, as well as the will of the racing gods, he will be driving for Aston Martin next year, and the chances of him becoming champion again are slim.

But Lewis doesn’t need to win an eighth title for me to consider him one of the best F1 drivers – the same goes for Max. He’s already become one of those drivers, and only an idiot would argue that he only achieved this because he had a good car.

After all, none of his teammates could compete with him. On the track, Max is just a beast, a real machine for winning, and he absolutely doesn’t care what they say about him. He’s just an incredible racer.”

The statistics for 2022 only confirm the words of the Scot: of Red Bull Racing’s 17 victories last season, 15 were won by Max Verstappen. He had 611 laps to his credit, while combined drivers from teams such as Ferrari, Mercedes, Alpine and Aston Martin led 531 laps.