Former F1 team principal Franz Tost has firmly stated that Max Verstappen is the best driver in the sport, something the Austrian believes is “very clear”.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Tost led Red Bull’s sister team from its entry into F1 in 2006 until the end of the 2023 season, meaning he was Verstappen’s team principal for a brief period.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Verstappen had Tost as his boss when he joined Toro Rosso (now known as Racing Bulls) for the 2015 campaign, when he was just 17 years old.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Dutchman’s career has been closely followed by Tost, who insists the four-time world champion is the best driver in the championship, while also describing Kimi Antonelli as “really very good”.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“Verstappen is currently the best driver in Formula 1,” Tost told the 15 Love – der Business podcast.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“That is very clear. But I have to say that Kimi Antonelli is doing great, really very good. And then Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris follow, with Charles Leclerc behind them.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Antonelli has defied all expectations across the opening five rounds of the 2026 F1 season and is currently on a run of four consecutive victories.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
It has seen the 19-year-old build a 43-point lead in the drivers’ championship, with Tost particularly impressed by how composed Antonelli has been.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“Max Verstappen is the best,” Tost added. “Kimi Antonelli has put in a sensational performance in these first races of the season, given the experience he has.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“How controlled he drives, and with how much overview. So he is already among the new superstars. And the others are Norris and Piastri.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former F1 team principal Franz Tost has firmly stated that Max Verstappen is the best driver in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3518,3521,3519,3522,3520,3517,3515,3513,3516,3514,111,139,69,3512,213],"class_list":["post-454931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motorsport","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}