"Every decade there are good drivers, and then there is one who is exceptionally fast. That is the situation with Max. It is very special. He started very young and was always fast. There was a perfect combination of him, the car and the engineers. The timing was just right.
"But if someone keeps winning and you already know who the champion will be, that can eventually work against you. People get tired of seeing the same winner all the time. Yet Max, especially last year and the year before, has shown that he can still win even without the best car. That's why he is so beloved and admired: he has proven his class.
"You only have to look at how he has beaten his teammates. He has completely destroyed them. And when I say destroyed, I really mean destroyed. At the moment the car is simply not good enough. I can imagine that he enjoys doing other types of races as well, such as at the Nürburgring. I'm happy about that, because it's really cool.
"I am an admirer of Max. He always comes up to me when he sees me; he knows who I am. That's nice, because he doesn't have to do that. I don't belong to his world. But I think he is a nice person, and if you get to know him a bit better, your opinion can change. That's how sport works."
- Jacky Ickx on Max Verstappen
