F1 drivers congratulate Verstappen: 'Proud to share the track with you'

Fine words from F1 drivers for Verstappen

"Three times world champion. That's amazing," Charles Leclerc began after the sprint race at Viaplay. "As I've said many times, he deserves all the success that he's having. The team is doing an amazing job, but he's doing an incredible job and he's consistently there. So, yeah, it's deserved. And even if it's a Saturday, I hope he can enjoy winning the world championship tonight. Tomorrow we'll try and make his life hard, even though I struggle to believe we'll be anywhere close their pace."

Lewis Hamilton also congratulated Verstappen on his fine performance. "Congrats to him and the team. And, yeah, I hope tomorrow we can somehow maybe fight with him, that would be cool," said the Mercedes driver. Carlos Sainz added: "I congratulate him. He's done a perfect year and hopefully next year we're gonna give him more of a fight."

Personal message from Albon and Ocon

Alexander Albon, former teammate of Verstappen at Red Bull Racing, has nice words for the Dutchman. "Firstly, huge congratulations. I would say, I think for him to have finished P2 in the sprint race is maybe not the way he wanted to win the championship, but he's just been so dominant this year," said the Williams driver.

"It just shows the level he and the team have been at. I know what it's like to be his teammate so I know how good he is. They've been the class of the field from start to end and they deserve everything. It's up to us and everyone else now to try to catch up."

Esteban Ocon, who has raced with Verstappen for years in karts, directs his congratulations directly to Verstappen. "Congratulations mate. I think what you've done and the sacrifices your whole family has made has been incredible. I mean, I've seen all of that throughout the years when I was racing against you obviously. I'm proud to be sharing the track with you and I hope you have many more successes in the future," the Alpine driver concluded.