Zak Brown snubs Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen for ‘no-brainer’ greatest F1 driver of all time

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Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are often regarded as two of the greatest drivers of all time, but neither makes McLaren CEO Zak Brown’s top two drivers in F1 history.

Hamilton is the most successful driver in F1 history, and also shares the record with Michael Schumacher – who Brown believes is the second-greatest driver to date – for the most titles with seven. Juan Manuel Fangio sits alone in third place in the history books, with five titles.

Verstappen is tied with Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel for the fourth-most titles to date, as the Dutchman has won the F1 drivers’ championship four times. McLaren star Lando Norris won the 2025 F1 drivers’ title by just two points to end Verstappen’s streak of four in a row.

Red Bull racer Verstappen could have joined Schumacher in rarefied air by winning the 2025 title. Schumacher is still the only driver to ever win five titles in a row from 2000 to 2004 for Ferrari. Vettel from 2010-2013 and Hamilton from 2017-2020 both won four titles in a row.

Zak Brown thinks Ayrton Senna is the GOAT, prove him wrong

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Zak Brown thinks Ayrton Senna is the ‘no-brainer’ greatest of all time in F1

Hamilton also boasts the records for the most F1 Grand Prix wins (105), pole positions (104) and podiums (202). Schumacher is second in each category, with 91 wins, 68 poles and 155 podiums. Verstappen ranks third for wins (71) and podiums (127), but is fifth for poles (48).

READ MORE: All to know about Ayrton Senna including Alain Prost rivalry and Imola crash

Yet Brown believes Ayrton Senna is, without question, the greatest F1 driver of all time, with Hamilton and Verstappen vying for third-best behind Schumacher. Senna won three titles in his career, which was cut short by his fatal crash at Imola in the 1993 San Marino Grand Prix.

“Senna, no-brainer,” Brown told The Smokeless Word podcast. “[After that?] probably, Schumacher. You’ve got to put Lewis in there. And you’ve got to put Max in there.

“But my second favourite would be Mario Andretti. [I] love Mario. And I like the crossover guys. So, Nigel Mansell, Emerson Fittipaldi [and] Mario Andretti, both IndyCar and Formula 1 world champions. And that’s why I’m such an admirer of Fernando Alonso.

“When [Alonso] was like, ‘Let’s go to Indy [the Indianapolis 500]’, not many people on the Formula 1 grid, if any, would be ‘Let’s go try’. And I think after he signed up, he did the first couple laps and was just like, ‘Oh my good God’. Punishing, 230 miles an hour. It is insane.”

Max Verstappen is forcing his way into the F1 GOAT debate

Senna ranks third for poles (65), fifth for Grand Prix wins (41) and eighth for podiums (80) in F1 history. The Brazilian also entered the fewest Grands Prix among the drivers Brown views as the greatest, with 162 against Hamilton’s 380, Schumacher’s 308 and Verstappen’s 236.

Qualifying was often where Senna showed his sheer class over his competitors, as well as in wet conditions. Yet not many pundits and current drivers would now agree with Brown that Senna is the greatest F1 driver of all time, as Verstappen is now gaining a lot of recognition.

Senna’s former teammate Stefan Johansson believes Verstappen is the “best ever” F1 driver, as the Dutchman is the “most complete”. But it could be argued that Verstappen still has to prove he can race wheel-to-wheel consistently against rival drivers on an even playing field.