Formula 1 News: Coulthard’s Verdict on Verstappen vs. Hamilton

On a recent The Red Flags Podcast, former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard leaned back in his chair, a knowing smile creeping across his face as the hosts steered the conversation toward one of the sport’s most heated debates: Max Verstappen versus Lewis Hamilton (pictured at 2025 Chinese GP).

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The air was thick with anticipation—fans had been pitting these two icons against each other for years, dissecting every overtake, every radio rant, every championship battle. Coulthard, with his wealth of experience from 15 seasons in F1, was about to drop his take on the matchup, drawing from a YouTube clip that had gone viral among racing enthusiasts.

“I’m going to go with Max for the following reasons,” Coulthard began, his Scottish accent cutting through the room like a well-timed gear shift. “I think that every generation should be better; that’s what evolution is. I think that there’s a crossover of generations there, and Hamilton has been incredible. But there’s also a little bit of a disconnect in some ways, and maybe this is a personal opinion.”

As Coulthard spoke, the podcast hosts nodded eagerly, hanging on every word. He painted a picture of Verstappen as the raw, unfiltered force of the new era—grounded, present, and unafraid to speak his mind. “Max, I find him very grounded. If he’s here, it’s just Max. He’s present, and we know when he’s doing his interviews and press conferences. If he’s not happy, he says it, and he’s not shy to say that, and he sort of owns his beliefs. You know whether he’s happy, you know whether he’s sad.”

The conversation shifted to Hamilton, the seven-time champion whose legacy loomed large over the sport. Coulthard acknowledged the Brit’s unparalleled achievements but couldn’t shake the feeling that the torch was passing.

“So I go with Verstappen because they’re very difficult to separate the two of them in terms of Hamilton at his peak, and I keep saying that because I’m not sure that he is at his peak anymore – controversial for a loser like me to dare to say that – but it just feels like the greats match their teammates or beat their teammates. And in the last couple of years, if I’m not mistaken, he didn’t do that with George, and it doesn’t feel like he’s done that with Charles.”

To illustrate his point, Coulthard delved into the cold, hard metrics that define F1 greatness—the stopwatch and the checkered flag. “If we just use the two things that are ultimately important in Formula 1, it’s the stopwatch, and it’s a checkered flag. Everything else is opinion. So stopwatch gives you your qualifying position, as we know, the checkered flag gives you the number one trophy, and I think that I think the outright speed is maybe not there with Lewis anymore.”

But Coulthard wasn’t done. He wrapped up with a nod to Verstappen’s boundless potential: “But you’ve got to give him so much respect, but Max, it still feels like he’s developing, it still feels like there’s more to come, it still feels that, how far can this guy go?”

As the podcast wrapped, the debate spilled over into the F1 community, with fans rewatching the clip and crunching numbers. To put Coulthard’s generational evolution theory into perspective, let’s compare the two drivers at the same age—28 years old. Hamilton, born in 1985, hit that milestone just before the 2013 season, so his stats reflect his career through the end of 2012 with McLaren. Verstappen, born in 1997, turned 28 in late 2025, with his figures encompassing the full 2025 campaign amid a fiercely competitive field.

These numbers underscore Coulthard’s evolution argument: Verstappen’s tally at 28 dwarfs Hamilton’s from the same life stage, reflecting the Dutchman’s explosive rise in a more data-driven, high-stakes era. Hamilton built his foundation in a gritty McLaren, scrapping for every point against legends like Alonso and Raikkonen. Verstappen, meanwhile, exploded onto the scene with Toro Rosso at 17, then dominated with Red Bull, amassing titles in a blur of precision engineering and aggressive racing.

Yet, as Coulthard hinted, stats don’t capture the full story. Hamilton’s early career was a masterclass in resilience, turning a debut season into near-championship glory and clinching his first title in dramatic fashion in 2008. Verstappen, the product of a racing dynasty, embodies the modern F1 driver—simulator-honed, media-savvy, and relentless. Their head-to-head battles, like the epic 2021 title fight, have defined a generation, but Coulthard’s pick leans toward the future.

In the end, as the podcast faded out, one thing was clear: whether you side with Hamilton’s timeless class or Verstappen’s evolving dominance, F1’s evolution marches on, one lap at a time.