Verstappen's inconsistency means he isn't the best yet - Villeneuve

Max Verstappen is yet to reach the level of Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, according to former Formula 1 champion Jacques Villeneuve. Verstappen endured a frustrating start to the 2018 season, finishing sixth after spending the second part of the race stuck behind Alonso's McLaren.

Verstappen has exploded onto the scene in F1, his star sent into the stratosphere by taking victory at the Spanish Grand Prix on his Red Bull debut.

At just 18 years and 228 days, that made Verstappen's F1's youngest race winner by almost three years from Vettel.

Indeed, Verstappen has added two more wins and remains younger than Vettel was when he won the Italian Grand Prix for Toro Rosso in 2008.

Verstappen suffered with reliability issues in 2017, but he caused team-mate Daniel Ricciardo to retire with a crash in Hungary and saw his own races in Spain, Austria and Singapore ended by collisions.

Not the result we hoped for. From lap 1 on I had a lot of oversteer, which made my afternoon difficult on a circuit where overtaking is already hard. Not much more to say other than I will be back stronger in Bahrain #keeppushing #AusGP pic.twitter.com/1q0RlmE3d0 — Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) March 25, 2018

And 1997 champion Villeneuve says Verstappen cannot be considered among the sport's very best until he irons out his inconsistencies.

"In F1 the most competitive and globally recognised racers are Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton and the two of Red Bull," Villeneuve told AS.

"The rest have much to prove yet.

"And Max, although he is good, is also very irregular, he must improve in that aspect."

Verstappen finished sixth in last year's drivers' standings, behind his team-mate Ricciardo. The Dutchman picked up two wins to Ricciardo's sole victory in Azerbaijan, however.