Max Verstappen fights against Lewis Hamilton for the first title of his career. The season has seen ups and downs and the same goes for the title protagonists. Both men had their ups and downs, but through all of that, the personalities of the two men have slowly come to the fore.
While Hamilton is more or less well known, Verstappen was a bit of a revelation this season. Determined, focused, relentless and arguably too mature for his age, the Dutchman has shown many facets of his personality that many did not know existed.
Because of these revelations, he is now drawn similarities and a certain legend from the past. A German who got into the sport rather quietly, but then conquered it like no other before him.
Yes, we’re talking about Michael Schumacher. A former teammate of Max Verstappen’s father Jos, but also someone who seems to have helped shape the 24-year-old’s career.
This article takes a look at some similarities between Michael Schumacher and Max Verstappen.
Max Verstappen vs. Michael Schumacher: How are the two F1 drivers similar?
# 1 Has had an immediate impact in F1
Max Verstappen impressed even before he started on the grid. Both Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and Red Bull driver development boss Helmut Marko recognized very early that he was the next big thing and followed suit with lucrative offers.
The two teams had to fight for the services of the young child prodigy, with Red Bull eventually ousting the German giant.
Michael Schumacher, on the other hand, had made such an immediate impression with qualifying a mediocre Jordan fifth at Spa in 1991 that both Benetton and Jordan had to fight a legal battle for his services.
# 2 Early clashes with established drivers
Max Verstappen was quickly promoted to the Red Bull senior team in his sophomore year and would win his very first race with the team that year. This season, Verstappen had a car that was capable of competing with the best on the grid.
Max Verstappen competed regularly against Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel. His combative driving style and relentless demeanor also rubbed some of them the wrong way.
In his early years at Red Bull, Verstappen dealt with Vettel and Lewis Hamilton several times to achieve more than was possible with Red Bull.
Michael Schumacher also had a similar development. Moving to Bennetton enabled him to face Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and others at the sharp end of the grid.
One of his most famous clashes was with Ayrton Senna, which eventually culminated with the Brazilian legend going to Schumacher publicly and talking to him about the incident.
# 3 Driving style under the microscope
It was something that made Michael Schumacher the driver he was. That makes Max Verstappen the driver he is. It’s the driving style that both drivers used.
Michael Schumacher didn’t give his rivals an inch when it came to wheel-to-wheel battles. Has he ever crossed the line? He sure did, but wherever he could, he would give his rivals what was necessary and nothing more.
This driving style was often considered unsafe, even unsporting, and so the German was put to the test. Max Verstappen also used a similar “crash or yield” style and used flak for it.
# 4 Relentless and tenacious approach
What made Michael Schumacher the machine that would dominate the sport was his single-minded focus. His approach to a racing weekend was relentless. Every tenth that had to be taken out of the car was taken and every position that was on the table in the race was snapped. The focus has always been on maximizing the result as much as possible.
Since his fall in qualifying in Monaco 2018, Max Verstappen’s approach has become significantly more top-heavy. He’s been more focused on maximizing the returns from each race and when victory isn’t on the table he tries to get the best result possible.
Even if Schumacher finished a race in a certain position, everyone knew that the car was the best possible result.
# 5 Neither of them had media-friendly personalities
Max Verstappen said it was “not my problem” when people insulted the language in his #F1 radio rant after his crash with Lance Stroll at FP2 in Portimao:
autosport.com/f1/news/152995…
Max Verstappen said it was “not my problem” if people insulted the language in his #F1 radio rant after his crash with Lance Stroll at FP2 in Portimao: autosport.com/f1/news/152995 …
It’s fair to say that Max Verstappen is not a media darling who is nowhere near sociable with the press, like Lewis Hamilton or Fernando Alonso.
He has been fairly transparent about this and that sometimes plays a role when stories are written about him in certain publications.
Michael Schumacher was also confronted with a similar backlash from the media. The media wasn’t his best friend in 1994 when he in a questionable manner won his first title against Damon Hill, or when he fell out of favor after deliberately colliding with Jacques Villeneuve in 1997.
Schumacher never cared about getting the media on his side and that would work against him at times when it went south.
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In many ways, Max Verstappen’s first championship fight brings back memories of F1 legend Michael Schumacher. The German could go on and become seven-time world champion. It will be interesting to see how Max Verstappen’s career will develop and what successes he can achieve.
Edited by Sandeep Banerjee
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