Mario Andretti admits he’s been seriously impressed by 26-year-old F1 driver with ‘super confidence’

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Legendary driver Mario Andretti has admitted he’s been seriously impressed by Red Bull driver Max Verstappen after an unbelievable season.

Andretti was speaking on the Beyond The Grid Podcast about the Dutchman’s fantastic 2023 campaign.

The 1978 F1 world champion was reflecting on his career in the sport before turning his attention to this year’s action.

The American raced in one of the most competitive periods in Formula 1, fighting off seven other drivers who would go on to become world champions to win the title that year.

Andretti knows a top driver when he sees one and has admitted that he’s been really impressed by Max Verstappen this season.

The 26-year-old has won 17 Grand Prix so far this season alongside four Sprint Race wins.

He’s doubled the points tally of teammate Sergio Perez and would be winning the Constructors’ Championship on his own.

Verstappen is now entering the realm where he has to be considered one of the sport’s greatest-ever drivers.

With the rules not drastically changing in F1 until 2026, Verstappen and Red Bull will be expecting to win the championship for the next two years.

If that happens, then he’ll be starting to dream about matching or even overtaking Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton’s total of seven titles.

Andretti admits he’s been impressed with Verstappen

Speaking about the Dutch driver, he pinpoints the one race where a Red Bull didn’t win the Grand Prix as the one that really caught his eye from Verstappen.

He said: “Well, right now you’ve got to look at the very top at the moment.

“And I’m looking at Max [Verstappen], he just under any circumstance, I mean he’ll just go out no matter what.

“You watch him in Singapore, I mean he fought to the end, that’s the spirit and he learned something even from that and he put it to good use for the final races and so on.

“The spirit is there and the super confidence.”

Andretti and the rest of the F1 paddock have been impressed with Verstappen even if they might wish he hadn’t been so dominant.

It’s not a fantastic look for the sport for one driver to be so much quicker than everyone else even if the other nine teams on the grid wish they could design a car that fast.

The longer the same regulations exist in Formula 1, the closer the grid tends to be, suggesting 2024 might be more competitive.

However, underestimating Adrian Newey is a dangerous thing to do and considering how fast Red Bull have been all year, they’ve almost certainly been spending a lot longer than every other team on the grid perfecting next year’s car.