Speaking to Italian outlet Quotidiano Sportivo about whom on the current grid he considers to be the strongest driver, irrespective of the prowess of the car they drive, the 2007 F1 world champion responded: “Verstappen! I saw him arrive in F1 during my second stint at Ferrari. Max is a phenomenon. He won his first race in Spain right in front of me, ten years ago. That’s when I realised a star was born.”

It has in fact just gone 10 years since that very victory in Barcelona, where the then 18-year-old Verstappen properly introduced himself at the very top of F1. The Dutchman took advantage of a first-lap crash between Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to claim his maiden victory in the sport. What's even better is that Barcelona 2016 was also Verstappen's first-ever race for Red Bull, having replaced Danii Kyvat in a controversial mid-season driver switch from Red Bull's sister team Toro Rosso.

As Raikkonen said, he was right behind Verstappen during his first F1 win. The Red Bull rookie had to put up with an awful lot of pressure from the Flying Finn during the closing laps at Barcelona, but did not put a foot wrong to become the first-ever Dutchman to win a Grand Prix.

With Raikkonen making his views clear on where Verstappen ranks among the current grid, it was then put to GPblog readers in a poll as to where the four-time world champion sits among all the F1 greats past and present - Top 3, Top 5, Top 10, or too early to say.

And the readers have had their say, 77.8% believe Verstappen is already within the Top 3 F1 drivers of all time, 12.2% say he is Top 5, 7% argue he is in the Top 10, while only 2% claim it is still too early to tell where 28-year-old is compared to other F1 legends.

As ever, there was more to be said in the comments, while some argued Raikkonen had got his initial assessment spot on, others decided to rank their own greatest F1 drivers of all time.

Meanwhile, another F1 great, seven time world champion Lewis Hamilton, has opened up on his relationship with new race engineer Carlo Santi after his P2 finish Canadian GP.

Replacing Riccardo Adami as Hamilton's race engineer, initially on an interim basis, Santi has proved to be a key reason why the Briton appears to be back to his best in 2026. Hamilton said to media, including GPblog: “I chose a different set-up this weekend through just ciphering through the data, working really well with my engineer.