Nico Rosberg praises Max Verstappen’s driving finesse, calling it pure magic. The Red Bull star is his driver of the year.
Rosberg is deeply impressed by the way Max Verstappen handles his Red Bull RB21. The former Mercedes F1 driver, now back at the track as a pundit, has had the chance to closely observe the four-time world champion’s driving.
“Max is always in the mix. The last proper circuit was Imola and he dominated the race there. He was very, very fast,” said Rosberg in Barcelona.
“Here, we see he’s slightly behind, but he’s still close, and you never really know what fuel loads teams are running here. He’s driving incredibly well. For me, he’s the driver of the year so far. You can never count him out.”
The 2016 world champion elaborated on what impresses him most about the Red Bull driver: “It was really interesting for me because it was the first time I’d been at the track in a very, very long time, and I truly saw the magic of Max Verstappen out there.”
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Oversteer Mastery Defines Verstappen
“First of all, these cars are incredibly twitchy at the rear. You can see drivers working the wheel a lot, and the rear is always very nervous. It’s very heavy, very edgy, and it seems to be a challenge for everyone. Max Verstappen comes into a corner and it’s just incredible.”
“He eliminates understeer and makes the car very oversteery, which usually forces other drivers into quick corrections and limits their freedom — but he manages to keep that oversteer within this beautiful, razor-thin window where he never exceeds the limit.”
“If you go beyond that, you overheat the tyres, lose control, and drop a lot of time, but he balances that oversteer within that tiny window in an unbelievable way. It’s like a work of art — it’s amazing.”
Verstappen’s Subtle Edge Explained
According to Rosberg, Verstappen’s driving style is what creates the gap to his teammates: “Yuki Tsunoda comes in, there’s heavy understeer, and the car oversteers the moment you get on the power. That’s the core of it.”
“That’s why Max is always six-tenths quicker than any of his teammates. All of them are very good drivers, and it comes down to the delicacy of feel and the speed of processing incredibly fine details at the rear of the car. It’s like art.”
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