Fittipaldi delivers verdict: 'Verstappen would beat Norris if they were on the same team'

Fittipaldi is anything but forgotten in the Formula 1 paddock. When the two-time world champion (in 1972 and 1974) takes a stroll through the heart of Formula 1, he’s stopped every few meters. Everyone knows the Brazilian, and he knows everyone. Even more than fifty years after his last crown in Formula 1. “It's great to have this gift from God,” he later says in McLaren’s hospitality, the team that delivered the now 79-year-old his first world title when speaking exclusively to GPblog.

If it’s up to the Formula 1 legend, another Fittipaldi will be the best in the world within a few years. The former champion now travels halfway around the world to support his son Emerson Junior (19) during his first season in Formula 2. “He is very good. He jumped from Formula Europe to Formula 2. He is learning this year, but he is doing a very good job. [To be in] Formula 1 is the dream. It is his dream, since he was six years old.”

Who knows, Fittipaldi Junior might also become world champion, although his father realizes that another Brazilian currently has a better shot at winning the ultimate prize in F1: Gabriel Bortoleto. Fittipaldi finds the Audi driver “very good."

Bortoleto isn’t his favorite driver. When GPblog asks who is it, the Brazilian doesn’t need a second to think: “Max. Although he does not have a good car, he is there. He is a very good racer. When the flag drops, the bulls*** stops. But Lando [Norris] is good, Piastri is extremely talented, Lewis Hamilton is very strong.”

Norris and Verstappen driving together at his McLaren would be a dream duo for many. In that case, Fittipaldi makes a prediction: “It would be dicey, but Max, I think he would have a little edge, but it would be very nice.”

While many believe Verstappen is the best to ever do it, Fittipaldi finds it difficult to pick a single driver. “It is difficult to compare. Each driver is different. If you look from Ascari and Fangio’s time until now, no one drove the same car. It could be similar, but never the same. Each driver is its own personality.

“It is very difficult to compare who was the best. The best driver ever in Formula 1 for Brazilians is Senna. But for the Argentinians it was Fangio. For the Netherlands, now, it is Verstappen. For Germany, Schumacher. For France, Alain Prost. For England, they had so many great drivers,” Fittipaldi laughs.