https://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id...1-driver-2010s

I read the above article and all I could think of when I saw Max Verstappen as the all out winner in the raw speed section was that this journalist has bough into the Max hype.

Don’t get me wrong on this one, Max is super talented but the driver with the most raw speed of the last 10 years? Get the f outta here mate.

Lets test that theory:

1. When you’re taking pure raw speed into account, there is no greater barometer than qualifying by which to judge raw speed/ In the time they were at Red Bull, Ricciardo had more poles than Max. In fact, Riccardo still has more poles than Max at 3 while Max has only 2 poles. In reality, had Lewis Max’s car, I doubt it would have taken him over three years to get a Pole Position.
2. It ’s not realistic to take Albon or Gasly as barometers considering how awful Gasly was at the start of the year and Albon was coming into a new car. On that side though, I will note that Albon set exactly the same time as Max in Q3 Japan I believe it was. This suggests to me but it is not definitive proof, that Max is not this raw speed superstar that everyone believes as he should have been ahead of Albon 100% of the time.
3. Max may have pasted Riccardo in qualifying last year, but it was just as much due to Riccardo’s bad luck and issues with the car so it’s not really a good barometer either. I’d rather take the previous year as a proper example and they were neck and neck in 2017

So who here buys the Max hype? Personally, I haven’t seen anything to suggest he has more raw speed than Bottas, let alone be on the level of Hamilton or Alonso even. He my have, but he has yet to prove it definitively. I suspect this journalist probably realises all this and really placed Max ahead of Hamilton to generate this very type of conversation but I think it detracts from the achievements of Hamilton.

The Max hype train is getting boring at this stage. Super talented yes, has he proven he has more raw speed than Hamilton or other greats of the sport yet? He may in time but he most definitely has not proven that yet.