F1 News: Vettel slower than Verstappen, says Ricciardo

Max Verstappen likes to push his competitors to the very limit. This was clearly evident at Monaco. At a time where everyone expected that Lewis would have a cakewalk at the Principality, the young Dutchman gave the British driver a lot to think about.

While pushing a five-time world champion to the very limit may never have come easy, Max Verstappen hardly shied away from a fight. In the end, it was a bit heartbreaking to see the Dutchman being handed a five-second penalty which immediately distanced him from the second spot of the podium, demoting him down to fourth.

And as a result, Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel found himself promoted up into second, thus earning his best-finish of the year.

Max Verstappen is an utterly competitive driver is something that's common knowledge from the beginning. Those fantastic drives at Brazil under rains and at Spain where he won his maiden race in 2016 have gone on to establish his legend.

But that he leaves little to the imagination in those constant pursuits to gather wins and podiums is also something that cannot be discounted. For it is often in those efforts that several drivers find themselves being at the receiving end of what's technically called 'dangerous driving'.

Over a month ago, the kind of warrior-like instinct Max demonstrated at China- during F1's 1000th Grand Prix- where he'd go wheel-to-wheel with Vettel (driving a faster car) was endlessly exciting.

Therefore, there's hardly a doubt about young Max's speed. In the current season, despite driving a car that's clearly not the fastest, the 21-year-old has gone on to collect a hat-trick of fourth-placed finishes and two podiums.

On these lines, when Daniel Ricciardo offered some insight on his former teammate and his driving speed, it wasn't difficult to agree.

Asked recently about who among Vettel and Max would be quicker on a single lap, the ever-smiling Australian offered his humble two cents,

Max, yeah, yeah and that’s law. Yeah I won’t take anything away from Seb, he is not slow by any means but I would say on raw speed, probably more as well because Max is still young.”

“I think if he’s quick now he’s probably only going to get quicker, where Seb has been doing it that long, I think he’ll always improve as a driver but this probably less room to grow for Seb and there’s more for Max.

“Yeah, I would say that, if Seb’s listening: sorry Seb you’re still a badass, it’s alright!”

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