If there was ever a term that could define what the Intimidator was like on track, it would be unyielding. 25 years on since Dale Earnhardt’s passing, his Intimidator moniker is looking for a new shoulder to rest on. Early this year, after Talladega, comparisons between Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar and Earnhardt started to pick up speed; it was Hocevar’s off-track antics that quickly put those conversations to bed. 

Maybe we haven’t found the Intimidator because we are looking at the wrong track. Renowned motorsports broadcaster Will Buxton looked at a particularly aggressive Formula 1 driver who can also be described with the word unyielding as a possible ‘New Intimidator.’ On Speed on FOX, Buxton asked Kevin Harvick if four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen could be compared to Earnhardt. 

“I don’t think so,” Harvick said. “I think that the way he goes about things is very aggressive, and in the things that he says and does, and has great results on the racetrack. I think it’s hard to compare guys that are in such different generations.”

The topic came up after Verstappen drove to his first victory of the season at Sepang in Malaysia. Verstappen spent the early parts of the season complaining about the new regulations and the car he had to drive. He even threatened to retire from F1 altogether because he felt like the car was anti-racing. But he’s ground through the tough portions of the season, and now he is a 72-time F1 race winner. 

While Harvick wasn’t having any part in the Verstappen-Earnhardt comparisons, he lauded the Dutch driver often called Mad Max because of his driving style. That style is described as ultra-aggressive, and that itself is enough to tell you why the comparisons to Earnhardt exist. 

“I love the way Max goes about things,” Harvick said. “I love his leadership and the things that he can detail to the team to keep his car progressing in the right direction without the engineers just saying, ‘Hey, here’s what we did.’ I feel like he has input into those conversations to say, ‘Ah, that worked, but I didn’t like this, so we got to work on this piece of it,’ and that’s the thing we talk about a lot.”

“There’s very few drivers that can help guide the engineers and team in a direction that is also beneficial on the racetrack, instead of just looking at the numbers,” he added. “And I think he’s one of those guys.”

Verstappen has been known to never hold back and never give an inch. Kenny Wallace earlier stated that Earnhardt drilled it into the drivers’ heads that if they didn’t want to get wrecked, they would have to give Earnhardt room. Because Earnhardt would make the move regardless. 

Eventually, drivers understood and accepted that it was better to get out of the way than end up in the garage with a car to repair. Buxton expressed that F1 drivers may have similar feelings about Verstappen.

“In terms of how he is on the track, I do think his rivals may be, give him a wideish berth because they know that he won’t take any s***,” Buxton said. “And that if you’re gonna go wheel-to-wheel with Max, if you’re gonna sharpen your elbows and go up against Max, they’d better be bloody sharp.”

Verstappen has the third-most wins in F1, with only Michael Schumacher (91) and Lewis Hamilton (106) ahead of him. Schumacher got his first win in 1992 and his last in 2006. Hamilton won for the first time in 2007, and his most recent win came earlier this year. To be fair to Schumacher, the F1 calendar wasn’t as stacked as it is now, but he achieved 91 wins over 14 seasons. For Hamilton, that stretch is 19 years. 

Verstappen is at 72 wins after just 10 years. His first came in Spain in 2016, and his most recent was on Sunday. If he were to remain in the sport for as long as either Schumacher or Hamilton, there is no doubt that he would finish as F1’s winningest driver. 

Coming back to the Earnhardt-Verstappen conversation, Earnhardt won 76 Cup races, the first in 1979 and the last in 2000. That is a 21-year stretch. But it is the impact of that stretch that makes Earnhardt who he is. 

Earnhardt became the second driver after Richard Petty to win seven Cup titles. Incredibly, even in F1, seven is the most number of titles for a driver. Schumacher and Hamilton are the only ones to achieve that feat. 

Verstappen already has four, and he is just 29 years old. If anyone can break the seven-title mark, it’s likely the Dutchman. 

While Earnhardt and Verstappen are too hard to compare because of the different eras they drove in, both drivers have been definitive figures in defining what their era is all about. Earnhardt raced harder than most, and Verstappen does the same. That is why both drivers are afforded space by their fellow competitors. 

We may keep debating who the New Intimidator is, but it’s unlikely that we will find someone who wears that moniker as the ‘Man in Black,’ Dale Earnhardt. Similarly, Verstappen is carving a path out for himself, and there isn’t anyone who he can be compared with. 

The most intimidating feature about Verstappen, however, is that he is a pure racer. He can jump into any car and win. Red Bull did a fun Max vs 100 challenge where they put 100 amateur drivers in go-karts to race against Verstappen, who started behind them all. Verstappen was given 30 laps to overtake everyone; he took 14. 

But before that, on a serious competitive stage too, Verstappen has shown his versatility. During the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, Verstappen drove for his own team and even pulled a double night shift. Right through, he remained first. It was a driveshaft failure that saw his team DNF, but without the issue, he would have won there too. 

We have records of everything Earnhardt achieved and the impact of it all, but it is unlikely that we have seen even half of what Max Verstappen is on course to achieve in his career.