Red Bull EXCLUSIVE: Max Verstappen compared to Roger Federer, Michael Jordan

Red Bull see similarities between Max Verstappen and other sporting greats because he can do things “that nobody else is able to do”.

Verstappen has won three consecutive F1 drivers’ titles and remains on course to become a four-time world champion in the 2024 season, having won half of the 14 races to have taken place so far.

At the age of 26, the Dutchman is already considered one of the greatest drivers of all time, racking up 61 grand prix victories, 40 pole positions and 107 podiums across 199 starts since his history-making debut in 2015.

Speaking exclusively to Crash.net at the Belgian Grand Prix, Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache drew parallels between Verstappen and icons of other sports.

“Because he’s like all the legends in each sport,” Wache said when asked what makes Verstappen so special.

“Some people are able to do stuff that nobody else is able to do. I don’t know how or why. But it’s what he is able to do.

“He's like Roger Federer, like Michael Jordan. These types of people that are able to do stuff nobody else can do. 

“The driver is the controller in the car, and he has the capacity to control and to operate the car that nobody has.

“It gives him the capacity first to free some brain capacity to drive at the same time and analyse what he needs and what he wants.

“His feedback is very interesting, because he operates the car at the limit, how nobody else is using it.”

Wache explained how Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez’s feedback is vital in Red Bull's quest to make improvements to their cars.  

“The feedback from both drivers is very important to how we develop and how we cure, because making a quick car is fundamentally not difficult,” he said.

“What is difficult is to make a car quick, to be able to be used by the driver. If I am in the car, I would not be able to extract the performance.

“You operate this kind of car so specifically that the driver, how they use it, is very important.”