Max Verstappen pips Lewis Hamilton on F1 race winner’s 'champion ranking'

Former F1 driver David Coulthard has picked Max Verstappen over Lewis Hamilton when ranking his all-time champion list.

Verstappen narrowly missed out on adding to his title tally last month in Abu Dhabi, ending the season two points behind Lando Norris.

The Dutchman's title count remains on four, which still places him among the sport's most successful drivers.

Heading the list of the most successful drivers in history is Hamilton, who has more wins, podiums and pole positions than any other driver while sitting level with Michael Schumacher on seven championships.

Coulthard appeared on the Red Flags podcast in which he was asked to rank F1 champions in a knockout tournament-style list.

In one semi-final, Verstappen and Hamilton faced off against one another.

When asked to choose between the pair, Coulthard said: “I’m going to go with Max.

“Every generation should be better, that’s what evolution is. There’s a crossover of generations there, and Hamilton has been incredible.

“But there’s also a little bit of a disconnect in some ways - this is a personal opinion - but Max, I find him very grounded.

“If he’s here, it’s just Max. He’s present, and we know when he’s doing his interviews and press conferences, if he’s not happy, he says it, and he’s not shy to say that, and he owns his beliefs. You know whether he’s happy, you know whether he’s sad.”

Hamilton endured a challenging final few years at Mercedes and his slump continued during his first season with Ferrari this year.

Coulthard asserted Hamilton is past his peak form while Verstappen is continuing to demonstrate growth.

“So I go with Verstappen because they’re very difficult to separate the two of them in terms of Hamilton at his peak, and I keep saying that because I’m not sure that he is at his peak anymore – controversial for a loser like me to dare to say that – but it just feels like the greats match their team-mates or beat their team-mates.

“And in the last couple of years, if I’m not mistaken, he didn’t do that with George, and it doesn’t feel like he’s done that with Charles.

“If we put opinions to one side and we just use the two things that are ultimately important in F1, it’s the stopwatch, and it’s a chequered flag. Everything else is opinion.

“So stopwatch gives you your qualifying position, as we know, the chequered flag gives you the number one trophy, and the outright speed is maybe not there with Lewis anymore. But you’ve got to give him so much respect.

“But Max, it still feels like he’s developing, it still feels like there’s more to come, it still feels that, how far can this guy go?”

Verstappen matched up against Ayrton Senna in the champion's final, with Coulthard choosing the latter as the winner.