"There are hardly any drivers who can successfully compete against him"

"There are hardly [any] drivers who will successfully compete against him. He is doing such a good job that any other driver will have problems to be on this level”, said Tost in conversation with RaceFans.net when assessing the difference between Verstappen and his teammates.

Tost also says he knows why the Dutchman reaches such a high level. This is largely due to the fact that he grew up on the kart track, in a family where both father and mother raced at a high level. In addition, the intensity with which father Jos was involved in his son's career from an early age also contributes to this.

Verstappen has years ahead of his contemporaries

According to AlphaTauri's team boss, this results in a driver who was already a few years ahead of his peers at the age of 17. There was a lot of criticism at the time that Red Bull allowed such a young driver to make his debut, "but from his driving experience he was maybe 22, 23 or whatever in comparison to other drivers", says Tost.

At Red Bull Racing he only gained that experience in March and Tost has no doubt about what he can achieve. “If you look at his overview during the race, how he reads the races, then he could have won the championship already a couple of times. He can immediately react to info from his engineers, he knows exactly what the strategy of direct opponents, what they’re doing. And he’s reacting in the way champions are doing.”