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A former Formula 1 driver believes as many as “seven or eight” other men would be able to win a world title if they had use of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.
The Dutchman is cruising towards a third successive Drivers’ Championship crown, leading the standings by 125 points at the summer break.
The 25-year-old has won the last eight races and Red Bull are yet to be beaten at a Grand Prix this season.
And while praising Verstappen, Juan Pablo Montoya believes that the Red Bull vehicle’s superiority over the rest of the cars on the grid would allow plenty of his rivals to become world champions were they to swap with him.
“Well right now, he’s doing a very good job,,” Montoya, who won seven times in six seasons in F1 at the start of the century, told Semana of Verstappen’s dominance. “He looks just as invincible as when [Lewis] Hamilton was winning everything, that’s the reality.
“Max is a very good driver, but so far in the best car. Max’s speed right now is no better than Max’s speed two years ago, it’s probably the same. The car is much faster.
“If you take Max out of that car, there are about seven or eight drivers who could be world champions in that car. If he were not there, Checo [Sergio Perez], Hamilton, [Carlos] Sainz, [Charles] Leclerc, he would be world champion.
“It is the timing of motorsport, not only one as a driver, but also the machine one has. The luck of which car is fast. The Red Bull with these rules is the best car; suddenly, if the rules change, it could be no longer.
“It is the balance between the better you are, the more chance you have of being in a good team. The best drivers are in the best cars.
“Lando Norris, for example, is a very good driver and the McLaren has improved a lot this year, but Lando in Red Bull would probably be world champion.”
The F1 season is set to resume on the weekend of 27 August at Verstappen’s home Grand Prix in the Netherlands.
No team has ever completed a clean sweep of race victories across a full campaign.
There are ten stops left on the calendar, with the concluding event in Abu Dhabi on the final weekend of November.
