Chandhok ranks Verstappen with Schumacher and Senna: 'Uncompromising'

For months, Chandhok has been consistent with his comments: Max Verstappen will win the Drivers' World Championship, and McLaren will run away with the top prize in the Constructors' Championship. "In the end, the championship for Max, the foundation, was built in the first five races," analysed the Indian during an exclusive interview with GPblog.

"He's not had the fastest car since Miami onwards. McLaren has had the fastest car. But Max has been amazing. He's really done an outstanding job to deliver the points, and keep getting the points. I think only Baku, maybe he had a weekend where he looked a little bit behind Checo [Perez] in terms of pace. Otherwise, he has always been maximising the potential of the car, and he deserves to be World Champion."

Chandhok sees a difference between Verstappen and the rest

According to Chandhok, the fact that Verstappen always maximises has been decisive in the championship. "Lando [Norris] had weekends where either there's some race start [issue] or weekends where Oscar [Piastri] was quicker than him, or he’s not fully got the points. The team also.

"I think in Canada, for example, they were a little bit unlucky with the timing of the safety car but I think they could have reacted more quickly. I think Silverstone, they didn't put the correct tyres on Lando, so he lost some points there. I think in Monza, they could have played the team strategy better, they could have played the team game better, but they lost that. So I think as a collective, you have to say that, on the whole, Max has done the best job."

Being there every race, always getting the maximum number of points possible, is what distinguishes Verstappen from the rest. "One hundred per cent," Chandhok responded. "There is an element of luck in that as well. You have to be good, you have to be great, but it's also a bit of luck. Let's take Lewis [Hamilton] in 2007, for example. They made the strategy mistake in China, and he ended up in the gravel trap. But he was also unlucky with a gearbox sensor in Brazil, and that lost him the championship."

"In 2021, both Lewis and Max had bad luck. They had bad fortune at different times. Max's bad luck was in Budapest, of course, with Valtteri [Bottas] and Baku when the tyre exploded. Lewis' bad luck was Nicolas Latifi crashing. Of course, whatever happened afterwards was not handled correctly by the race officials but actually, without Latifi crashing, Lewis would have won that race and the championship. There’s no denying that."

Chandhok can't pick the best ever

With a fourth World Championship title likely coming soon, Verstappen ranks among the absolute elite in the history of motorsport. But is he the best ever? "For sure, one of the all-time greats. No doubt about it. In terms of pure driving talent…we can all debate who is the greatest of all time. You can't ever settle that debate. But what you can say is in the history of the sport every, I would say, six or seven years there's a very special talent who comes along.

"Before Max, it was Lewis. Before Lewis, it was Fernando [Alonso] and Kimi [Raikkonen]. They arrived at the same time. Michael [Schumacher], then Senna, Prost, Lauda, Clark, Stewart. But you look at the gaps. Every six, seven years, somebody special comes. And there's no doubt Max is one of those very, very special talents."

Verstappen came under fire towards the end of the current season for his actions at the United States and Mexico Grands Prix. Verstappen reminds Chandhok of Schumacher and Senna in this area. "I use the word uncompromising. They race in a way that they don't want to compromise even 1%. They will push the limit of what they can get away with right to the very edge."

Max Verstappen's style

According to Chandhok, Verstappen takes a completely different approach to someone like Lando Norris or - in the past - Damon Hill, "who are maybe less willing to push the limit as much". " Max, and I saw Jos saying this last week, has always raced this way since go-karts. Maybe that's just the way he's been trained so in his head that's just normal. In his head, this is racing. 'This is the only way I know to go racing and why should I do any different'. It’s just in his head and his style," Chandhok added.

Karun Chandhok, at least, is convinced of one thing: "I think what is clear about Max is, he's also very intelligent. Maybe people don't speak about that very often. But if I look at the racing he did in Austin, for example, it was so impressive. Because the defensive driving he was doing in Austin was so clever. He was putting the car in exactly the right place, slowing down in the right place, being quick in the right place, saving the battery, using the battery, it was very, very intelligent racing."

Norris and Verstappen had a fierce fight in the US Grand Prix, and the Brit received a penalty for overtaking off track. "Even in the wheel-to-wheel with Lando, he knew the rules. He knew exactly the rules, which is I have to be in front of the apex. If I'm in front of the apex, I'm in control of the outcome. Honestly for a driver to be racing 320 kilometres an hour and still be able to think of these scenarios, shows that he's obviously very intelligent," Chandhok said.

Want more Formula 1? Then follow GPblog on our various social media channels!

X | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube