After a dominant victory in Montreal, Verstappen has now achieved as many Grand Prix victories as Ayrton Senna, an impressive feat. Senna is Lewis Hamilton’s racing hero, and the Briton himself toppled more than a few records including Senna’s qualifying record of 65 pole positions in 2017. Now, Hamilton believes that Verstappen can do the same given the “amazing job” he’s done in his “incredible career”. 

As Hamilton said, “Max has been doing an amazing job. He’s had such an incredible career so far and he’s for sure going to surpass [Senna’s figures].”

At this point in the season, Hamilton has been urging the Mercedes team to work on the car and get it “where it needs to be so we can slow him down.” 

“He’s got a very long career ahead of him so absolutely [Verstappen can eclipse my record],” he added. “Ultimately, records are there to be broken. And he’s got an amazing team. 

Forever the competitor, Hamilton “hope[s] we get to have, at least within the last period of time in my career, some more close racing.” 

While Verstappen has beaten Senna’s records, he still has a long way to go to catch Hamilton. Not only does Hamilton have the joint-record seven World Drivers’ Championship titles with Michael Schumacher, he also holds the record for the most wins (103), pole positions (103), and podium finishes (194). 

Verstappen is currently at 2 Drivers’ Championships, 41 wins, 85 podiums, and 25 pole positions. However, he has more than a few records of his own including the most wins in a season (15), most podium finishes in a season (18), and most points in a season (454). 

Granted, some of these figures are inflated as there are now more races than ever in a season, but it doesn’t take much away from his achievements and certainly highlights the trajectory that he’s on. 

Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, believes that Verstappen is in amazing form and will surely be soon considered as one of the “greats”.

“What we’re witnessing with Max is the emergence of another mega talent and you can start to talk about him in the same sentence as the greats now,” said Horner. 

“Having matched Ayrton Senna… I thought the [Canadian GP] podium actually was very apt of, if you like, the last couple of decades of Formula 1 with Max, Fernando [Alonso], and Lewis up there.

“He just keeps delivering at such a high level.”