Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel both believe that if Red Bull and Honda provide Max Verstappen with a decent car next year, the 21-year-old Dutchman can be a contender for the Formula 1 crown.
Verstappen enjoyed a strong second half of last season, only bettered by World Champion Hamilton. The Dutchman has matured into one of the toughest competitors on track with good speed to boot, factors that his World Champion rivals admire.
After the season finale in Abu Dhabi last month, Hamilton said of the Red Bull driver, "Max has been driving very well throughout the year and has shown his consistency and has been up here many, many times with us."
"So if his team does the job and delivers a platform with which he can compete even closer with us, then of course he’ll be in the fight," added Hamilton.
Vettel echoed Hamilton when asked if he expected Verstappen to be a challenger, "He’s got all the ingredients. I think there’s a couple of guys out there who have these qualities and Max is certainly one of them. Yeah, I think we’ve seen that."
"I also remember from my time, it’s important to have a competitive package throughout the season and Red Bull are certainly very, very strong and they put more performance to their car than any other team across the year, so obviously that allowed them to be very competitive, especially looking after tyres, etc," explained the German.
Of course, the key to Verstappen (or any driver for that matter) shining is a strong and reliable package which is not a given, more so next year with Honda's bolted to the back of the RB15s.
Taking for granted that Adrian Newey will deliver another extraordinary chassis, the question remains: can Honda provide an engine that will allow Red Bull and their young ace to take on Mercedes and Ferrari?
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