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Red Bull driver Max Verstappen previously paid homage to his longtime rival and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc stating that he was confident that the latter would make it to F1. The two drivers have been racing against each other since their karting days, and followed each other to the pinnacle of motorsport. Notably, they are arguably two of the best drivers in F1 currently.
Despite racing each other in the karting series for multiple years, it was the Dutch driver who made the jump to F1 early in 2015 with Toro Rosso, skipping the F2 series entirely. Leclerc had to take the traditional route and made his way to F1 in 2018 with Sauber after winning back-to-back titles in F3 and F2 in consecutive years.
During the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix post-qualifying press conference, Max Verstappen was asked if he thought of fighting Charles Leclerc for wins and pole positions in F1, to which he replied:
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"I always thought that, if I would make it to F1, Charles will also make it. You can see already from, I think, a young age, the really strong drivers, what they were back then, they are also in F1 now.
"So, it’s never been a surprise to me that Charles is sitting here and, of course, then after that you need a little bit of luck to be in the right team here and there to get on the front row, but it’s not a surprise that we are sitting here together, I think."
Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc have had some legendary battles in F1 ever since both started racing each other in top teams from 2019 onwards.
When Charles Leclerc spoke about fighting Max Verstappen in his racing career
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc previously stated that he had similar comments for Max Verstappen and believed that both would be competitive in every racing category.
In the same press conference, the Monegasque driver added:
"Obviously, when you are young, and you are in karting, Formula 1 feels so far away that, for me it was obviously not a given that I will finish in Formula 1 one day. I think we knew that we were very fast because we were already competitive in karting and whenever we change categories, we will always be competitive – but it’s still such a long way off Formula 1 that you don’t really imagine yourself in Formula 1 yet. But it’s amazing."
Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc even fought for a title briefly in F1 in the first half of the 2022 season; however, the challenge from the latter dwindled away owing to Red Bull's superior pace and Ferrari losing pace later in the season compared to its early-season form.
