Dutch sensation Max Verstappen thinks it was hard to judge how good Carlos Sainz and himself were, when the two were teammates at Toro Rosso.
Sainz and Verstappen stepped up to the Toro Rosso teams as rookies, and immediately tuned heads up and down the pit lane after a competent start to their F1 careers. Verstappen made the step up to the senior Red Bull team for the Barcelona round this year, in a move which saw Danil Kvyat move back to the Toro Rosso team to partner Sainz.
Since the Red Bull seat swap, both Verstappen and Sainz have performed very well in their respective seats, which then started the debate on who is the better driver.
“It was a good battle I would say and then of course it is always very positive if you are the one who gets the jump to Red Bull so that shows I did the right thing there,” Verstappen spoke to F1i.com about his relationship with Sainz.
“I think you learn a lot from it but I think in general we were both rookies so it’s difficult to really measure each other. But then once I joined this team I definitely had to up my game against Daniel [Ricciardo].
“It all went pretty smoothly, it’s not like I suddenly had to make a huge jump, you just go slowly and I was just growing into it. Especially race results are always going well and I think that’s definitely my strength.”
Max went on to praise his relationship with Aussie charger Ricciardo, going on to state that the relationship is better than the one he had with Sainz.
“I think in general is already a good team but then once you step up to Red Bull everything is just one step better in whatever they do, which you expect from a world championship team. That’s nothing bad against Toro Rosso because they were doing the best they could with the possibilities they had.
“In the end the atmosphere in the team is also very good, I’m enjoying it. Daniel’s a great team-mate, we have a lot of respect for each other and he’s a very friendly person as well so it’s good to have a good atmosphere between the drivers.
“Also the team, they are pushing and since I joined I think Daniel and I are pushing each other to the limit, we are pushing the team forward and I think that’s very good for the whole combination.”
There are many up and down the pit lane that believe Red Bull have the best driver pairing on the grid. If not now, then at least for the future.
