What makes Max Verstappen special? Red Bull aero-wizard Adrian Newey reveals

F1 Grand Prix of Spain — Max Verstappen has proved to be a class apart very early on in his racing career

As the seventh driver to win a championship in one of Newey's designed race cars, Max Verstappen is vying for a third championship title. Newey has now given his analysis on what sets the current Drivers' Championship leader a class apart.

Newey believes Max is the perfect driver, praising his high-octane driving in an interview with Sky Sports Italia:

“I think he is. He's got tremendous car control and natural ability. He came in and maybe made some mistakes early on because he was pushing so hard, but now he's really smooth and drives absolutely to the limit of the car, but within that, he's very thoughtful."

Appreciating his understanding and judgment in the choice of tyres, Newey adds:

“He has a very good feeling from the tyres, we have seen that in several races over the last two years. He really has a good feel for how to use the tyres. With the tyre behavior, that's such an important factor now.”

The Red Bull CTO believes that Max Verstappen is a prototypical driver who has a great talent for controlling his car and innate driving skills.

Max Verstappen's first title in 2021 coincided with Adrian Newey's comeback

Between 2016 and 2020, Adrian Newey worked on projects outside of F1, but he returned to full-time engineering with Red Bull before the 2021 season. This was the year that Max Verstappen won his first world championship.

Verstappen described Christian Horner's confirmation to Sky Sports News that Newey would remain in the team after 2023 as a great development.

Since Newey's comeback, Verstappen won the championship again in 2022 and has had a flying start to his season in 2023. He is currently comfortably cruising towards securing his third title in a row. The Dutch driver has a good lead of 53 points over his teammate Sergio Perez.

He has secured a podium in all seven races in the season, out of which in five, he was P1. He is on track to set consecutive records in 2023 given his teammate Sergio Perez's inconsistency in competing with him. Nevertheless, both the drivers have asserted and assured Red Bull's dominance for the year.

At the Spanish Grand Prix, Verstappen easily claimed his fifth victory of the year, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell of Mercedes rounding out the podium.

It is difficult for anyone to see beyond the fastest driver Max Verstappen driving the fastest car of team Red Bull. There hasn't been a strong contender who has been able to match the kind of standards the Dutchman is setting. It would be difficult to imagine anything getting in the way of the two-time world champion this weekend in the 2023 Canadian GP.