Max Verstappen

Verstappen's status as 'F1 great' REJECTED by British driver

2015 Le Mans winner Richard Bradley doesn't think Verstappen is an all-time great

Jay Winter

Friday 11 August 2023 18:57

2015 Le Mans winner Richard Bradley has suggested that Max Verstappen can't be considered amongst the all-time greats of Formula 1 as he hasn't 'proven himself' by winning in an inferior car.

Speaking to the On Track GP podcast, the British driver claimed the two-time world champion misses something that other F1 greats have achieved.

“For me, Max hasn't proven himself properly in a car which doesn't have the capability to win yet," Bradley said.

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“I'm not talking one which had a possibility to win, I'm talking one which really didn't have a chance to win."

Bradley then started to list off 'real greats' who had won races in subpar cars, all while clearly ignoring seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

“But whereas you look at the real greats, [Ayrton] Senna, with that 1984 [season] driving the Toleman but then winning in an uncompetitive Lotus when his team-mates weren't on the podiums," he said.

"Then he went into a good car. But even when the McLaren wasn't good in '93, he still won races in it.

“You look at [Michael] Schumacher. He won the World Championship in that Benetton when his teammates were absolutely nowhere, took Ferrari and was winning races in 1996 when, again, they were nowhere.

“You look at [Mika] Hakkinen, he was winning races before McLaren were in a position to win the championship. [Alan] Prost has won the most races not starting in the top four of anybody in history."

“Going back to the [Sebastian] Vettel factor, Vettel won a race in that Toro Rosso, and was consistently in the top six.”

Verstappen became the youngest-ever F1 at the age of 17 and 166 days at the Australian Grand Prix in 2015 - The following race in Malaysia saw him become the youngest-ever point-scorer in F1 history

Verstappen's statistical case for greatness

After the summer break, Verstappen will have the chance to equal Vettel's record of nine consecutive race wins at the Dutch Grand Prix, this comes just months after breaking the German's Red Bull record of 38 race victories with the team.

Despite being F1's youngest-ever race winner and well on track to become a three-time world champion at the age of 25, Bradley seems to be unwilling to brand the Dutchman among the F1 greats.

Perhaps he should consider listening to Michael Schumacher's former team-mate, Martin Brundle.

"We're witnessing something special, something incredible," said Brundle on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.

"So I don't know why we need to run and hide from it or talk about it being boring or whatever. You know Verstappen is extraordinary in control of a very challenging Formula One car."