Max Verstappen receives big praise after being compared to the great Michael Schumacher by former double F1 champion

Two-time F1 world champion Mika Hakkinen compared Max Verstappen to Michael Schumacher, stating how both drivers lived racing rather than making it a part of their life.

Similar to Hakkinen, Verstappen is a double world champion currently, but his aim in Formula 1 looks too far extended, as he is pretty much on the way to winning his third consecutive title.

Currently, he has won 10 out of the 12 races of the season, and eight of those wins are in a row. It feels as if Max Verstappen just doesn't race on the track, but his entire lifestyle revolves around it. Schumacher followed a similar lifestyle, as Hakkinen revealed, quoted by RacingNews365.

"Michael Schumacher. He was undoubtedly an incredible F1 driver. His dedication to the sport... racing was his life! It wasn't an ordinary job, not an ordinary hobby, but it was his life. Exactly that's what I see in Max as well: it's his life," Hakkinen said.

Max Verstappen is also known for his keen interest in simulator racing, where he has won multiple titles. It's marvelous that a Formula 1 driver is able to showcase equally good performances in other types of motorsports through sim racing.

"He thoroughly enjoys what he does. When he's not in a race car, he's either driving in the sim or testing and developing things," Hakkinen added.

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Mika Hakkinen explains how sim racing is helping Max Verstappen in real-life racing

As mentioned, the Dutchman is arguably one of the hardest drivers to compete in simulator racing. He spends hundreds of hours on his simulator racing gig, and it has also been mentioned that he has won on his private jet. All in all, Max Verstappen leaves no opportunity to showcase his driving.

At the same time, this helps him to perform better in real-life races. It has been proven that a sim racing driver can perform effectively in real races because of the experience that one would gain on the sim. This is exactly what Mika Hakkinen marked. He stated that spending all those hours on the simulator helps Verstappen to find new ways of racing, and also get acquainted with all of the lines on a track.

"By doing that [sim, testing/developing things], he's not just learning, for example by finding new racing lines or braking later, but you can also develop your brain better," the 54-year-old said.

Hakkinen believes that it is one of the major things that make Max Verstappen win:

"Discipline, learning new things about yourself: making yourself better. The only way to do that is practice, practice, and stay hungry for winning!"