"He's still young and gaining experience"- Red Bull's Christian Horner rates Max Verstappen's 2022 F1 season so far

Max Verstappen currently leads the F1 World Championship standings with a whopping 80-point advantage over rival Charles Leclerc.

According to Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, Verstappen has had a splendid first half of the 2022 F1 season. Horner claimed that while the reigning world champion is still young and has plenty of experience to gain, his season so far has been absolutely "phenomenal".

Speaking to RacingNews365 in an exclusive interview, the Briton said:

“I think he’s still evolving as a driver, and he’s still young and gaining experience. And I think he’s really driven at a phenomenal level, both last year and so far this year, and you can see him using that experience to good effect now.”

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AlphaTauri boss says Max Verstappen instantly reminded him of Michael Schumacher

AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost has been a mentor to some of F1's greatest drivers of recent times, including reigning world champion Max Verstappen. The Austrian recently revealed that in his first stint, Verstappen reminded him of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher.

In an interview with F1-Insider, Tost said:

“I met Max for the first time with his father at the Nürburgring. He was still driving karts at the time. The next time was at the Norisring in Formula 3. In the rain, he drove in a league of his own, as if he was the only one who had discovered a dry line. He immediately reminded me of Michael Schumacher.”

“You could see what a mega talent Max was. After all, we took some criticism when we entrusted him with Toro Rosso at the age of 17, someone who didn’t even have a driving licence. He also did his first training session at Suzuka, one of the most difficult circuits of all. But Max did it all with aplomb. He never had any problems with the great speed of a Formula 1 car, always had everything under control right from the start.”

He also admitted that this is not the limit of Verstappen's potential, emphasizing that there is more to come. Tost said:

“In his first races, he was sometimes a little too aggressive. That sometimes led to a crash, for example in Monaco with Romain Grosjean. Today he is driving at an extremely high level. Nevertheless, we haven’t seen the maximum from him yet. Only Charles Leclerc can come close. Lewis Hamilton has already suffered too much from the ravages of time.”

With eight race wins to his name within the very first thirteen races of 2022, Max Verstappen has essentially dominated the season. Meanwhile, his rival Charles Leclerc's chances of challenging the Dutchman for the title have slimmed over the course of the year.