Photo: Race Pictures

Herbert sees key Senna, Schumacher attributes in Verstappen

08:45, 02 Nov

bySamson Ero

Johnny Herbert has praised a defining trait of Max Verstappen, comparing it to legends like Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, and Michael Schumacher.

“I remember that from Ayrton, Alain, and from Michael. They all had a bit of an intimidation element.”

- Johnny Herbert

The former F1 race winner, who appeared on the Stay on Track podcast alongside Damon Hill, touched on Verstappen’s skill and fearless racing. Herbert lauded his overtake on Lewis Hamilton at the Mexico Grand Prix, before stressing that the Red Bull Racing driver possesses an intimidating factor reminiscent of several F1 greats.

He said, “When Max overtook Lewis going into turn one in Mexico, I thought that was brilliant. Right on the edge, very late, but he made the move. There was a little bit of tyre rubbing, and that’s part of racing. It’s not going to be completely clean; no one is going to avoid touching each other because that’s not how it works.”

“Now, there have been occasions where, like Lewis has said to Lando [Norris], you’ve got to play hardball to be able to take it to him. But he’s up for that. He enjoys it, Max does as well, which is a powerful thing.”

Max Verstappen on the podium at the Mexico City Grand Prix - Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

“He intimidates people, and I remember that from Ayrton [Senna], from Alain [Prost], and from Michael [Schumacher]. They all had a bit of an intimidation element.”

At the Mexican Grand Prix, Verstappen made a lunge on Hamilton on lap six of the race, which saw him cut the chicane. Hamilton attempted to retake his position but locked up, skidded off track, and was subsequently handed a 10-second penalty for the incident.

Montoya criticises Hamilton's penalty after incident with Verstappen

Earlier, Juan Pablo Montoya criticised the penalty handed to Hamilton for his incident with Verstappen. The former F1 driver stated the British driver’s penalty was controversial, before doubling down on his claim that Verstappen should also have been handed a penalty for the incident.

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