Why Villeneuve thinks Verstappen shouldn’t be compared to Schumacher

08:20, 22 Jul

Updated: 10:16, 22 Jul

byNicole Mulder

Jacques Villeneuve compared Max Verstappen to his former teammate and world champion Damon Hill, but for the Canadian, there’s little doubt about who comes out on top. The Canadian also believes that the Dutchman should not be compared to Michael Schumacher when it comes to on-track behavior.

Can Max Verstappen already be considered one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time? Looking at his record at just 27 years old, the answer is definitely yes.

He is too, according to Jacques Villeneuve, who took part in a game comparing world champions as a guest on the Red Flags podcast, starting with a comparison between the Dutchman and Damon Hill, his former teammate at Williams.

Max Verstappen

'Verstappen is a machine’, claims Villeneuve

Although Hill is certainly a significant name in the history books, the Canadian has little doubt about who is better between him and Verstappen: ''I have a lot of respect for Damon because he was my teammate. I learned a lot from been years of working hard inside the team, making that car competitive.''

''He had two championships that he lost against Michael, one that was obviously stolen from him because he was just put in the wall in a nice way, and he just stood up from there, and he recovered and he went for it.''

''That season that he won in 96, he spent so much energy, even mental energy, social energy, on winning the championship that at the end of the season he was just empty, which was great, so I have a lot of respect for him.''

However, for Villeneuve, there’s no contest when it comes to Max: ''Verstappen is a machine. He's just a machine, he never gets tired.''

''Doesn't matter what the car can or cannot do, he will be there. He will find a way to make it competitive. Sometimes he's too aggressive, but still, we enjoy watching that, it's part of the fun.''

Asked if Verstappen reminds him of Michael Schumacher, Villeneuve is blunt: ''No, because he's aggressive without being dirty, it's not the same thing. Mistakes happen, and they're big mistakes, like in Spain, and it looks as if, but it was just a really big miscalculation.''

According to Villeneuve, it is nonsense that Verstappen deliberately drove into George Russell in Barcelona: ''If you wanted to do it on purpose, the two cars would have been in the gravel trap.''

''He was very upset, he shouldn't have let, and ultimately, Russell should have had a penalty for that turn one, because he did run into him, push him off the track. So there's a clear penalty there which they didn't give, which is wrong''