{"id":395847,"date":"2026-01-06T18:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T18:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395847\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T18:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T18:49:09","slug":"max-verstappen-unique-ability-revealed-as-long-as-max-has-that-no-one-can-beat-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395847\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen &#8216;unique ability&#8217; revealed: &#8216;As long as Max has that, no one can beat him&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former F1 driver Derek Daly has highlighted a \u201cunique ability\u201d possessed by Max Verstappen, which he believes elevates him to a level that has not been seen in decades.<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen enjoyed a strong end to the 2025 campaign and appeared on the podium at each of the final 10 grands prix.<\/p>\n<p>This stretch included six race wins, which brought him back into contention for the title, having been a mammoth 104 points adrift following the return from the summer break.<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen missed out on the title by just two points as Lando Norris held on to seal his maiden championship.<\/p>\n<p>However, it was Verstappen who topped many people&#8217;s list when it came to ranking the best driver of the season, <a href=\"https:\/\/racingnews365.com\/f1-top-10-drivers-of-2024-part-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">including RacingNews365.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Assessing the four-time champion&#8217;s talents, Daly stated Verstappen is operating at a level that has not been seen for decades.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMax has a unique ability to read his environment much more than any other driver on the grid,\u201d Daly exclusively told RacingNews365.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s able to read and process and make decisions about things that are happening instantaneously on the racetrack &#8211; at the race start, at the first corner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd he has a higher ability to put himself in a position to be successful more than any other driver.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo he knows that you&#8217;ve got to try and qualify on the pole. He has that light-fingered, light-touch ability to get the car right on the limit more than any other driver in F1 today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe then has the secondary ability to be emotionally neutral when the lights are all red. He makes a start, and has the ability to go around the very first corner to put himself in a position to be successful, in other words, control the race.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe operates at a higher level than any other driver I&#8217;ve seen for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen will be hoping he still has machinery to compete at the front of the grid this year as the grid faces a reset through a regulation overhaul.<\/p>\n<p>Daly has suggested the rest of the competition will have little chance to best the Dutchman if Red Bull produce another race-winning car.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wouldn&#8217;t even know another driver who operates like him at that level at critical times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs long as he has that, it\u2019s hard to beat &#8211; particularly if Red Bull give him a good car again. [2025] has been one of the most fascinating F1 seasons ever.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd it is leading up to potentially an even more fascinating season next year with all these new regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former F1 driver Derek Daly has highlighted a \u201cunique ability\u201d possessed by Max Verstappen, which he believes elevates&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-395847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-daniel-ricciardo","11":"tag-f1-calendar","12":"tag-f1-live","13":"tag-f1-results","14":"tag-f1-standings","15":"tag-ferrari","16":"tag-formula-1","17":"tag-lewis-hamilton","18":"tag-max-verstappen","19":"tag-motor","20":"tag-motor-sports","21":"tag-motorsport","22":"tag-motosport","23":"tag-motosports","24":"tag-racing","25":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}