Max Verstappen is just as good as Michael Schumacher and better than previous greats, according to ex-F1 star Giancarlo Fisichella. The former Jordan and Ferrari driver feels the Dutchman could control F1 for years to come in a similar way to Schumacher in the early noughties.
He praised the 25-year-old for cutting out errors in his racecraft to become the “complete” package. Fisichella told La Gazzetta dello Sport: “I raced against Schumacher, when he won everything with Ferrari, and I think there was no one as strong as Michael in race management.
“He remains number one to this day. But if we talk about driving talent, Max Verstappen is on the same level. I fear that Max is destined to dominate for a long time, if the union with Red Bull remains so strong.
“At the beginning he was crashing, he made a few mistakes due to inexperience, whereas now he hardly ever makes mistakes.
Fisichella appeared to snub Lewis Hamilton not only by saying no-one got close to Schumacher’s race management, despite the Brit also racking up seven titles, but also by claiming Verstappen is “ahead of the greats of the past”.
He even suggested Verstappen was a generational talent with only one other driver close to his level of skill, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Fisichella added: “If we talk about precocity, considering what he has done and is doing at his age, he is even ahead of the greats of the past who preceded him.
“Only Charles Leclerc can be compared to him in this respect. And in any case, a driver like Verstappen is born once every 20 years.” Verstappen broke one of Schumacher’s longest-standing records last season en route to his second title.
Verstappen’s total of 15 race victories was the most of any driver ever in a single season, beating Schumacher and Vettel’s 13 wins from their 2004 and 2011 title-winning campaigns.
However, Verstappen still has some way to go to beat Schumacher’s 91 race wins with just 38 top-step finishes in his career so far.
Fisichella is not the first to draw comparisons between Verstappen and Schumacher with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali also suggesting there were similarities. One of Schumacher’s closest friends, ex-FIA president Jean Todt, also claimed there was a link.
He commented: “Max, like Michael, is very determined, very aggressive… Then, of course, both had great cars at their disposal, because to win every driver, however exceptional, needs a competitive car.”
