Ex-F1 driver 'amazed' at Verstappen F1 'prejudice'

David Coulthard has claimed "prejudice" exists against Max Verstappen if the quality of his crushing Sao Paulo win cannot be respected.

From 17th on the grid in a torrentially wet Interlagos race, Verstappen stormed to victory, with pole-sitting title rival Lando Norris only taking sixth after a troubled day.

It meant the points lead grew to 62 points with only 60 remaining on the board following the Las Vegas GP - meaning if Verstappen out-scores Norris, or he does not score at least three points with a Verstappen non-score, the Dutchman will be crowned world champion for the fourth time. 

Verstappen's Brazil win has been described as one of the finest of his career as he won for the first time since June's Spanish GP, but 13-time race winner Coulthard believes personal dislike of Verstappen can cloud people's assessments of him.

“I’ve done a little bit of winning, and I’ve done a lot of losing, and I’ve observed some brilliant drivers over my time," he told PlanetF1.

“But it amazes me that, just because someone maybe doesn’t like him as a person, therefore that clouds their judgment on the facts.

“The facts are the guy is brilliant, he’s brilliantly fast. Yes, he’s controversial, but [Ayrton] Senna was controversial. Michael [Schumacher] was controversial.

“I’m not sure there’s ever been an uncontroversial, very successful person in Formula 1, maybe if you go back to the 1960s and 70s, when they literally were taking their lives in their hands. 

"But as old as I am, I wasn’t around at that time, so I can’t make a judgment on it.

“His drive in Brazil was a lesson to all the other drivers. It was on another level.

“So if somebody can’t acknowledge that and go: ‘That was brilliant’, then they have a problem. They have a prejudice problem, which is what causes so many problems in the world, doesn’t it?"