Formula 1 has hit the halfway point of the 2022 championship and the fight for the driver’s title is wide open, with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc showing insane resilience. But, there are now new entrants including Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz. Hence, as things stand, it’s anyone’s guess to predict who is going to lift the championship trophy.

Presently, Verstappen leads the world drivers’ championship with 208 points to his name. Then arrive Charles Leclerc in second and Sergio Perez in third separated by only 19 points. Carlos Sainz stands in P4 after scoring 133 points and has the Mercedes duo on his tail with hardly a breathing space.

From the word go, Ferrari and Red Bull set the performance benchmark this season. This translated into Verstappen and Leclerc announcing themselves as the title protagonists.

What’s interesting is, unlike in 2021, we are witnessing a new version of Verstappen this year; The duels with the Ferrari driver are far more respectful and fair than the previous season.

Sky Sports pundit, Martin Brundle, opined on this by saying “Max was very fair and professional in his driving and defence [in Austria]. Generally, he is this year, albeit very much pushing the limits in his defence against Mick Schumacher the week before at Silverstone.”

Furthermore, Brundle issued a warning for the Dutchman to not tarnish his reputation like F1 legends, Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna.

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He said “I remember commenting in Jeddah last year; Michael Schumacher’s, and to an extent, Ayrton Senna’s amazing legacies are partly diminished by some dirty driving, and that Max would do well to avoid that career reputation.

“It will be interesting to see how that goes if push literally comes to shove in the championship” Brundle concluded.

What Max Verstappen thinks of Michael Schumacher?

In 1994, Michael Schumacher and Jos Verstappen formed the driver lineup for the Benetton. This translated into a close relationship between the Schumacher and the Verstappen family. It also introduced the reigning world champion to the seven-time world champion back in the day.

The Red Bull driver has fond memories of his dad’s former teammate. In an interview, he shared his thoughts about Michael by saying “I was three or four years old at the time. I just knew this was Uncle Michael who was very nice. Who was an extremely big family man, But I never saw him as a record world champion. I wasn’t aware of that.”

An amazing statistic to look at is Max Verstappen, both, breaking and protecting Schumacher’s legacy. In 2021, by scoring 18 podium finishes, the Dutchman broke the record of 17 podium finishes by the seven-time world champion in a single season.

Notably, he protected his legacy by winning the driver’s title last year. Lewis Hamilton was on course to claim his 8th world title and break Michael’s all-time record. Unfortunately, Verstappen pipping Hamilton on the last lap meant that Schumacher still has the record to his name.

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The driver racing under the Dutch license has to win many more races before being in the same ballpark as the German. Yet, Verstappen’s race craft gives us a glimpse of Schumacher’s era and we wait to see if he can achieve all that his uncle did.