"We've never seen Verstappen do what defines true greatness"

Le Mans winner Richard Bradley thinks Max Verstappen has yet to show that he can do whatever the true greats of Formula 1 can do: win in inferior cars and take a team to the top. That is why Bradley thinks Verstappen may yet make the switch to Ferrari. The Le Mans winner thinks Verstappen is currently going through a meteoric rise.

Verstappen had to work hard for his first title. The 2021 season was a year in Formula One that no one will soon forget. The championship was not decided until the last race. There was no such thing in 2022, when the Dutchman seemed to win the championship with two fingers in his nose. It looks like that will happen again in 2023. Bradley thinks Verstappen might then start saying he wants to take Ferrari back to the top, as Schumacher did. "It wouldn't surprise me," Bradley maps to On Track GP.

"Especially when he keeps winning and he gets complacent, and people start saying, Oh, is he the best of all time? Max is the type of person who says, OK, well then I'll do what Schumacher did. I take Ferrari from a position where they couldn't win, to the championship," thinks the Le Mans winner. "The reason I think this is because Max is on his way to greatness, we can all see that. He is going through a meteoric rise, he is currently dominant, and he has won two world championships with Red Bull, but we have never actually seen him do what defines true greatness."

Verstappen not yet on par with Schumacher, Senna, and Hamilton

Despite the fact that Verstappen has an influence at Red Bull and the team has improved significantly since the young Dutchman joined the team, Bradley believes he is still just short of being on par with Schumacher, Senna, and Hamilton. "And when I say that, we look at Schumacher, we look at Senna, Hamilton, and the one thing that defines all these guys is that they were able to win in an underperforming car and take a manufacturer to a position where they weren't winning at the time, but were able to take them back there," Bradley said.

"Schumacher did it with Ferrari, we had Senna when he was at Lotus, we had Hamilton at McLaren after the new rules were introduced in 2009, and of course with Mercedes," the WEC driver continued. "While Max is doing exactly what he needs to do in a very, very good team and a good car, I think he wants to prove himself. And he wants to show that he is one of the true greats of all time. And I can imagine that in the coming years, he wants to bring Ferrari back to the glory they had with Schumacher." Exactly how this will happen, Bradley does not yet envision, but he thinks Verstappen would like to make that switch after five championships.

"Red Bull has made a perfect start to the 2023 F1 season with seven wins from seven races, five of which went to Verstappen. His lead in the World Drivers' Championship is already 53 points over his teammate Sergio Perez," Bradley concluded. For now, at least, it is certain that Verstappen is not going to leave Red Bull just yet. The Limburger has a contract through 2028 and is currently winning almost everything there is to win. Ferrari last won a race in Austria in 2022 and Ferrari's last championship was won in 2007.