Carlos Sainz is full of praise for Max Verstappen, hailing him as one of the best drivers on the grid, if not the very best, and credits his former teammate for raising his own game in an unusually candid assessment of the Dutch driver by a contemporary.
The pair were teammates at Toro Rosso in 2015 and half of 2016, a time in which Verstappen outshone the Spaniard and was sensationally fast-tracked to the Red Bull team to replace out-of-sorts Daniil Kvyat ahead of Sainz and promptly won his first race with the senior team.
The rest, as they say, is now history…
Today Verstappen is the de facto Red Bull team leader and Sainz oozes respect when discussing his rival with Motorsport-Total, “Max is, was and became one of the strongest, if not the strongest, driver in the field right now. He is very, very, very good.
“No matter what you would ask me about, he’s extremely competitive or extremely good at it.” “I learned a lot and it made me a better driver today.
“I have only good things to say about him when it comes to driving. And he’s a really cool guy. I get on well with him,” affirmed Sainz who will depart McLaren at the end of the year for Ferrari.