Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey believes Max Verstappen has all the attributes of the perfect F1 driver.
At 25, Verstappen has already established a distinguished track record at the pinnacle of motorsport, with 40 race wins and two world titles among his credentials.
And so far this season, all signs point to the Dutchman adding a third world crown to his collection, an achievement that would put him on a par with such legends of the sport such as Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda and Ayrton Senna among others.
Newey is obviously well-placed to assess Verstappen's talent, having worked alongside the young charger since his promotion to Red Bull Racing in 2016.
In an interview with Sky Italia, Newey was asked whether Verstappen was "the perfect driver".
"I think he is. He’s got tremendous car control and natural ability," said the Red Bull designer.
"He came in, maybe made some mistakes early on because he was pushing so hard, but now he’s really smooth and drives absolutely to the limit of the car, but within that he’s very thoughtful," said Newey in an interview with Sky Italia.
"He has a very good feeling for the tyres, we have seen that in several races over the last two years. He really has a good feel with how to use the tyres.
"With the tyre behaviour, that’s such an important factor now."
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Newey's own distinguished career as a designer in Formula 1 – perhaps the greatest ever in Grand Prix racing – saw him work alongside a plethora of great champions such as Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel.
But how would Verstappen compare to this talented group in Newey's view?
"Those drivers are all so different to each other," Newey explained.
"Nigel had huge self-confidence, a lot of upper-body strength, which in those days with no power steering and lots of downforce, was important. A fierce competitor out on track.
"Alain much more methodical, very articulate and testing was very frustrating because often he wouldn’t push himself. So you never quite knew where you were. But when he wanted to, he could turn it on.
"Mika and Kimi were very different. They didn’t say very much but what they did say, you had to take a lot of notice of and interpret what they were saying because they had different ways of putting things.
"Sebastian was a big thinker, long debriefs and spent a huge amount of time going through everything.
"Max is more in the middle. So very different characters but all phenomenal in their own right."
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