Verstappen’s fellow champions Hamilton and Alonso praise his “faultless” season

Max Verstappen’s fellow world champions on the Formula 1 grid said his dominant performance during 2023 deserves high praise.

The Red Bull driver is likely to secure his third-consecutive world championship in tomorrow’s sprint race at the Losail International Circuit. He only needs to finish sixth in the 19-lap race to become champion.

Fellow two-times champion Fernando Alonso praised Verstappen’s performance through the 2023 season, in which he has won 13 of the 16 grands prix contested.

“What an incredible season, breaking so many records,” Alonso said.

“When you are doing so many races and they were not easy races – sometimes, they were tricky with the weather conditions. We went through, I think, June, July and all the races were hit by rain on Saturdays or Sundays and it was sometimes tricky, and when you make no mistakes and you deliver the job every Sunday it’s big respect.”

Asked how racing against Verstappen compared to his battles with multiple champion Michael Schumacher in the mid-2000s, Alonso said the coming season could be “even better for Max”

“To be honest, he’ll keep adding championships, Alonso continued. “So we will compare him to Michael even closer in the future.”

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Lewis Hamilton, who Verstappen beat to the 2021 championship in deeply controversial circumstances, said his former title rival had been especially strong in 2023.

“I think he’s earned his position,” said Hamilton. “He’s done an amazing job with the package that he has. Him and the team have been phenomenal over the past year – faultless. I think they’ve raised the bar.

“As a team, we have to look at that and be like ‘okay, these are the areas that we have to be better to be able to match that and compete’. I do hope at some stage we can fight them and actually have them in a defending position. But they should definitely enjoy the moment, because they’ve worked for it.”

Verstappen’s Red Bull team mates present and past also paid tribute to his performance. Sergio Perez, who has only beaten Verstappen to victory twice all season, said he has done a “tremendous job” through the year.

“I think no credit should be taken away from the season that he has done,” said Perez. “I think he’s driven on another level compared to anyone else and that’s something that I have a lot of respect for.”

Pierre Gasly, who raced alongside Verstappen for half a season at Red Bull in 2019, said he was especially impressed how few errors he had made.

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“It’s another season of breaking records,” Gasly said. “I think it is as Sergio says – I think he’s in the best seat in the paddock to really assess and see the achievement that Max is doing this year and over the last couple of seasons.

“I think it’s no surprise that to anyone that he is very talented. And I think the team they are making with Red Bull is just performing at an extremely high level. And also the amount of mistakes they are doing is just unmatched compared to any other team. You can just respect and appreciate the work and the results they’re having, but hopefully that domination can come to an end sooner rather than later.”

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