Verstappen's 'grounded personality' despite huge success praised by F1 legend

That Verstappen is one of the best drivers of his generation, if not in the history of the sport, is something many agree on. According to Coulthard, the four-time world champion is not only a great person on the track but also very much so off it. He simply ran out of superlatives for the Dutchman.

"What I find so impressive, so incredible about Max is how he can do what he does whilst remaining a very grounded and normal individual," Coulthard told GPblog. "Because there's many examples of exceptional talents in other sports, other industries, the arts and in life, exceptional, successful people who somehow don't have their feet on the ground."

"That to me is full credit to his upbringing," continued the former Red Bull driver, who has a good relationship with the Dutchman. "To those that were part of guiding him through his journey from karting to where he is now."

Coulthard expressed great admiration for Max as a complete individual. "I couldn't be more impressed with how Max is in his entirety, what he does behind the wheel, how he treats people in let's say in normal life, when he's in the paddock, when he's doing all those things. That's not normal life. That's his profession. That's demands, lots of people around, it is very difficult to expect people to just be normal in that environment."

The Scot has experienced this during his own career, in his own way, but the eruption of social media over the past ten years has definitely made drivers more famous than ever before in 2025.

"Of course I live the other side of that now, where some people might remember me from the past, but I can walk around the paddock, stand at a coffee van in the paddock without anyone bothering me," he explained. He quickly added: "Not because anyone talking to anyone is bothering, but if I was a driver, I wouldn't be able to do that, and Max can't do that."

All in all, the former driver could not help but speak highly of Verstappen as both a person and a driver. "He's an exceptional human being and yeahI'm super impressed."