'Formula 1 learns more from Verstappen, than Max learns from Formula 1'
F1 News
- Sam Godber
The stories are familiar. Now a three-time world champion. Max Verstappen is enjoying an incredibly strong season with his Red Bull team, in which the Austrian racing stable failed to win just one Grand Prix. Former Formula Onedriver Jan Lammers saw Verstappen shine early on, at the very bottom of the racing pyramid. He explains how the talent, of the now 26-year-old driver, could be seen.
"You could already see the dominance in the karts," Lammers begins in the NOS Formula 1 podcast. "The ease with which he moved from one kart class to another. First the regular, then the switched and then his first tests and races in Formula 3. That's all: 'what's good comes fast'. You just know it's so convincing, that something very special is happening. If someone is fast in Formula 3, they are not going to be slow in Formula 2. Then you know it's going to translate into Formula 1," the former Formula 1 driver said.
Lammers had already seen Verstappen's talent
Lammers knew early on that the Red Bull driver would become a very big name in the world of motorsport. "You actually just know that after the first six months. If he had been with Mercedes the first year then, which was the dominant team then, he would have irrevocably become world champion the first year of his career," Lammers continued.
Verstappen has been driving in the premier class of motorsport since 2015. Lammers makes a striking statement about the Dutchman's time in F1. "I think Max has undoubtedly learnt some things in Formula 1, but I think Formula 1 has learnt more from Max than the other way around," concludes the 67-year-old Dutchman.