Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché has called Max Verstappen the best driver in Formula 1 history and says his technical feedback is unlike anything he has experienced from another driver.
Waché has worked closely with Verstappen during his four world championship-winning seasons at Red Bull. Speaking in an exclusive interview with RacingNews365, he picked out the Dutchman’s ability to identify what a car needs almost immediately as his outstanding quality.
“I think the main benefit that he has is the feeling he has of the car,” Waché said.
“I will not call him an engineer, because he is not, but he is giving the engineer something that no other driver I saw can, in terms of feedback and identifying exactly what is needed to be quicker.”
Waché makes Verstappen ‘best ever’ claim
Waché said Verstappen can identify the limits of the car from his first lap in practice and, crucially for Red Bull, explain those problems in terms its engineers can work with.
“It is insane the capacity he has to feel the car, what is missing when he is driving it, and afterwards to be able to translate that into a world we can understand,” he said.
“After the first lap, he knows exactly where the car is, where the limit is, and he is the best driver I think the sport has ever had.”
Verstappen has won four world championships and 73 Grands Prix, with his latest victory coming in Singapore on his 250th F1 start.
That followed Red Bull’s first Grand Prix win of 2026 in Malaysia, before Verstappen went on to take Sprint pole, the Sprint victory, Grand Prix pole and the race win at Marina Bay.
Waché joked that Verstappen is a “dream” when Red Bull are winning and a “nightmare” when they are losing, but said engineers enjoy working with him because of the information he provides.
He also rejected any suggestion that Verstappen tries to dictate the team’s technical work, describing him as open-minded and respectful of the expertise around him.
“He is quite easy to work with, and he is not arrogant in the way he works,” Waché said.
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