Only Leclerc can come closer to Verstappen, says AlphaTauri boss Tost

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AlphaTauri F1 boss Franz Tost said over the weekend in an interview with a press agency that only Charles Leclerc could come closer to Max Verstappen. Max Verstappen, the 24-year-old flying Dutchman who appears to be at the top of his form, somehow managed to win a much-debated title-decider last year in the expense of the job of the race referee Michael Masi, though, the Red Bull hammerhead seems to be untouchable this season.

He already had developed a whopping 80 points lead over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc coming into the halfway of the season. Apart from that, Verstappen literally seems near-perfect at every angle and when given the opportunity, the Dutchman rarely missed out a break to utilize the speed what Red Bull engineers were generating.

Only Leclerc could come close to Verstappen: AlphaTauri boss Tost

Meanwhile, speaking in an interview with a press agency, the AlphaTauri boss Tost had told that the 24-year-old Red Bull F1 racer still had rooms for improvement and he would perform even better over coming years.

However, he also praised Leclerc saying only the Monacan could challenge the Dutchman in a near future. Acknowledging that Verstappen reminded him of Michael Schumacher, AlphaTauri’s Tost said, “I met Max for the first time with his father at the Nurburgring, when he was 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, as he always had everything under control right from the start. 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”