Is Verstappen in the top five in F1?

Giant steps forward, Max Verstappen is on a path whose final destination is an exclusive room: that of the greatest in Formula 1. That is not in dispute, his name will be registered.

But let’s address the question: is Max Verstappen among the top five drivers in Formula 1 history? And for this piece we agree that Juan Manuel Fangio, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Jim Clark will be our list of references. This top 5, of course, is debatable, at least in some names, but what is not debatable is that it is a list that left many championships, pole positions, victories and the feeling, for those who saw the moment of each one, who were in the presence of someone historical.

And for the purposes of analysis, “sentiment” is an element to consider. Beyond the fact that its objective measurement is impossible, the fact that the authorized voices put a Fangio or a Clark at the time as pilots impossible to match, tells us a lot about what these men did in the 50s and 60s. In addition , at least until 1994, the year of Senna’s death, there is another variable that we must keep in mind: the risk factor.

Just because
His marks of precociousness are already legend: he is the youngest driver to debut in a Grand Prix (17 years old) and with the current superlicense it is difficult for someone to surpass that mark. But he not only made his debut quickly, but he won almost immediately: at 18 years old, beating Sebastian Vettel’s record (21 years old).

And it was precisely Vettel who he ousted from the record for consecutive victories: 10 wins in a row for Verstappen. It will surely be years before anyone is around. Michael Schumacher got seven in a row in 2004, when he clearly had the best car on the grid; Lewis Hamilton stayed at five in both 2014 and 2020, while the Briton enjoyed the dynasty he built alongside Mercedes.

Max Verstappen enjoys his moment. Yes, he has the better car, but he easily dominates his teammate, who has the same tools, just like Schumacher with Barrichello or Massa. In addition, he is close to being part of the unbeaten first team in an F1 season. And it’s not just about raw speed, Verstappen has grown a lot as a driver.

Like those on the reference list, he is a driver with all the repertoire: pure speed (one lap); consistent in rhythm; Basically resistant, intelligent and adaptable (rain, dry, fast track, slow track, soft or hard tires… nothing throws you off track).

Also, luckily for us, he had to go up against Lewis Hamilton and, once he got the car, he raced it and beat him; We will not go into details about what happened in the controversial last race of 2021, let’s stay with the fact that two greats faced each other over a year with quite competitive cars and gave us a season.

This year, Verstappen will join (unless a comet hits the planet first) the club of three-time champions, which includes Ayrton Senna.

why not
We said in the introduction that we will take into account the ‘feelings’ left by the pilots. Ayrton Senna is a clear example of why we cannot limit ourselves to statistics when it comes to measuring the best of the best.

For example, Joe Montana recently chose Dan Marino over Tom Brady as the best quarterback in NFL history. How many Super Bowl championships did Marino win? None. However, those who saw Marino play recognize his quality as evidenced by his statistics -another example, and a current one, would be Aaron Rodgers, or in more well-known fields, Cuauhtémoc Blanco in the Mx League-.

Ayrton Senna was about to win a Grand Prix with a Toleman in weather conditions that would stop the race today. Senna, with the same car, snatched 1.4 seconds in qualifying, in Monaco, from Alain Prost, who in 1988 was already world champion and a veteran. Yes, Verstappen will join Ayrton in the club of three-time champions, but Senna, beyond his pole positions, victories or fastest laps, has remained in the imagination and continues to stand the test of time. There is no F1 driver today who has not found inspiration in Senna.

And Schumacher competed against that giant. Schumi, who came to F1 as a last-minute plan to replace an imprisoned driver, made his debut by placing Jordan in seventh position and surpassing his veteran teammate, Andrea de Cesaris, who, on August 25, 1991, already had one each. . of experience in F1.

To underline how important the ‘feeling’ is for this piece, beyond his 68 pole positions, 91 victories, 7 world championships, Schumacher remains in the memory of that impossible victory in Spain 1996. Michael won with a car that was not to win (the Ferrari F310) and of course, he did it in a flurry and won by 45.3 seconds over Alesi’s Benetton and 48 seconds over Villeneuve’s Williams – Adrian Newey’s Williams was the champion car and Jacques would be champion the next year-. The rest of those who managed to finish, gave them at least one lap. He was tremendous.

Let’s finish with the masters of percentages. Fangio and Clark are far from the statistics of Hamilton or Verstappen and even far from Schumacher. However, if we go by winning percentage or pole positions, they beat all three. These drivers lived in a time when there were far fewer races and hardly any points, and unlike Verstappen or Hamilton or even Schumacher, they were facing death much closer.

The risk is something that will continue to exist in F1 as long as it does not become virtual and there is a human being physically inside the car. And let’s face it, that risk is part of the charm. Fangio and Clark, in the 50s and 60s respectively, competed in the decades with the highest records of fatalities in the category -15 and 14 fatal accidents respectively, (only 14 is more than the last four decades combined). Even so, these men worked hard in much tougher cars, on circuits as long as the 22 kilometer Nurburgring, in Grands Prix that lasted up to 3 hours (especially in Fangio’s times) and of course, in an unsafe environment.

In Belgium 1960, Clark -who was in his first year in F1- saw Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey die in that same race; the following year he was involved, though through no fault of his own, in the Von Trips accident at Monza, in which not only the driver but also 14 spectators died. Jim Clark (72 GP, 33 pole positions, 25 wins and 2 world championships), a farmer of natural talent according to Colin Chapman, found his destiny in 1968.

Fangio survived and left F1 after five world championships with four different manufacturers. It took Michael Schumacher decades to break the record. Perhaps Verstappen will catch up with ‘Chueco’, but so far he has not aroused empathy or admiration and respect from his teammates to the level that Juan Manual did, whom Stirling Moss nicknamed ‘Master’. It is as if Hamilton or Alonso had that gesture towards Verstappen. Do you think it’s possible?