Hamilton F1 rival makes astonishing admission with Verstappen claim

A former Mercedes Formula 1 star and world champion has made a significant claim about Max Verstappen following an era of unprecedented dominance.

The Dutchman is the undisputed number one of the sport currently, having taken all but three wins since the final race of the 2022 season.

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In fact, aged just 26, he has the third most victories of any driver, and shows no signs of slowing down with a dominant Red Bull team and a contract with them until the end of 2028.

It will, strictly speaking, give him the chance to win eight championships, if he can knock off every single one between now and then.

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Verstappen rivalling Hamilton and all-time greats

Now, 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg has admitted that former team-mate Lewis Hamilton is right up there with Michael Schumacher as one of the greatest drivers of all time, but believes that it won't be long before Verstappen joins that conversation with them.

Rosberg managed to beat Hamilton during a phenomenal title battle in 2016 by just five points, before retiring in the aftermath of his victory.

According to the German, Verstappen is already in the upper echelons of the greatest talents ever to grace the sport, having firmly defeated Hamilton to claim three consecutive world championships.

“Verstappen easily, yeah," he told the Business of Sport podcast when asked who was the best driver he'd raced with other than Hamilton.

"Because he's very soon going to be a top-five driver of all time with [Ayrton] Senna, [Michael] Schumacher, with Lewis [Hamilton] and [Juan Manuel] Fangio.

“I mean, he's already mentioning now that he's not going to be around forever but for sure he has many many more years in it.

“I mean at the moment also, it has become I think a little bit easier currently for him because there's no team-mate that's threatening him because he is so fast. It's not the team-mate that's slow and his car is so great.”

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