Gasly recalls Verstappen karting aggression: ‘Many starts I ended up in the grass’

Pierre Gasly has drawn comparisons with how Max Verstappen races in F1 to how the Dutchman used to approach karting.

The 28-year-old competed against the three-time F1 drivers' champion in 2010, before graduating to cars the following season.

Verstappen has faced a swathe of recent criticism for his on-track antics, although his wheel-to-wheel racing has been a well-covered source of discussion since his F1 debut in 2015.

His battles with Lando Norris over the Americas triple header re-ignited the debate and Gasly, who was his team-mate at Red Bull in 2019, says that you get "guaranteed hard racing" when going up against him.

"What's clear is that Max's racing style is quite unique around the grid," the Frenchman told media including RacingNews365.

"When you go wheel-to-wheel to him, the outcome is quite often slightly different than what you face with other guys.

"Whether it's fair or not, that is another conversation, but it's guaranteed hard racing, and the outcome seems unlikely to end up as an overtake and [it] can be an incident or a penalty."

Verstappen approach is 'quite smart'

Whilst the pair are a long way from the halcyon days of karting, Gasly can recall the danger of going up against Verstappen, who has racked up 62-grand prix victories.

The fact much of the Dutchman's style has carried over to F1 is no surprise to the Alpine driver, who believes Verstappen's take-it-to-the-limit is "quite smart" when vying for championship glory.

"I think we can all tell, all of us who raced him in karting [that it] was the same," the one-time grand prix winner added.

"Many starts I ended up in the grass because Max started behind me, and it was just the way he used to race back then.

"He's also quite smart at using the regulations and takes everything up to the limit, and when you're fighting for a world championship, that's what you will expect a guy like him to do as well."