Max Verstappen is going through the purple patch of his career. The Dutchman successfully defended his drivers’ championship at the Japanese Grand Prix this year. Former Formula 1 champion Mario Andretti claims he spotted the current champion’s potential earlier in his career and made a comparison with the great Niki Lauda.

After having a slow start to the season, Max Verstappen and Red Bull bounced back strong. Verstappen DNF’d twice in the first three races and at a point was 46 points behind Charles Leclerc. The technical team did a phenomenal job of bringing the car’s weight down and delivering the championship-winning car the RB18 is today.

Mario Andretti compares Max Verstappen to Niki Lauda

Mario Andretti is counted among the most successful drivers in motorsports. He is one of the very few drivers who have left their mark in almost every major motor sporting competition like Formula 1, NASCAR, and IndyCar, to name a few.

The 1978 Formula 1 champion is currently trying his best to sport a team owned by him in Formula 1. The 82-year-old former driver still follows the sport passionately and his experience shows when he talks about it.

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Talking to De Telegraaf, Andretti recently showered praises on Max Verstappen and compared him to Niki Lauda. He said, “No bullshit, straight forward. I always had a lot of respect for Niki. Max is also such a personality, I like that.” [Translated using Google]

Andretti rates Leclerc highly too but thinks that the Monegasque occasionally still makes mistakes.

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Mario feels that Max and Lewis Hamilton still stand out to him and feels that Max’s era of dominance is just getting started. Talking about spotting the Flying Dutchman’s talent earlier in his career, he revealed, “In his first year at Toro Rosso, you could see right away that he had a lot of talent.”

“Max showed at times how brilliant he is. He has matured, but that is a natural process. I find him very relaxed and confident. Max has everything he needs to win many more world titles.”

Emerson Fittipaldi on Max Verstappen’s titles

Last year Verstappen won the title after defeating Lewis Hamilton in the last lap of the last race in Abu Dhabi, which caused a lot of controversies. This year, FIA released a report saying the Dutchman’s team breached the cost cap last season which has fanned the controversy around his titles even more.

However, the two-time world champion Emerson Fittipaldi feels they can take away nothing from Verstappen. The former Brazilian racer maintains that Verstappen deserved to win the championship last season and in the current season as well.

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While Verstappen has won the championship with 4 races to spare, Red Bull can win the constructors’ championship this weekend. This will be the Austrian team’s first title win ever since the 2013 season.