Damon Hill tips his cap: “Max Verstappen is the driver of this age”
Damon Hill doesn’t hand out superlatives lightly. He’s spent years prodding at Max Verstappen’s elbows‑out approach, questioning the rough edges that sometimes come with the speed. But Monza left him with nothing to critique, only applause.
“I know I’ve been critical of some of his passing and tactics, but there is no getting away from the fact that Max Verstappen is the driver of this age,” the 1996 World Champion wrote on X after watching the Red Bull driver run riot at the Italian Grand Prix. “He’s a cut above in almost every respect. A phenomenon, actually. Nice job this weekend Max.”
That’s the thing about the Temple of Speed: it has a habit of stripping stories down to their essence. This one was simple. Verstappen stunned McLaren for pole by 0.077s with what officially goes down as the fastest lap in Formula 1 history — an average of 264.682 km/h around 5.793 km of Monza asphalt. We all expected the papaya cars to come back at him on Sunday, armed with the MCL39’s sleeker tyre life and a one‑stop race that suits them. Instead, Verstappen turned in a performance that bordered on clinical.
The start was spicy. Lando Norris had a pop into Turn 1, was muscled onto the grass in the drag down to the Rettifilo, and when Verstappen cut the chicane to hang on, he was told to give it back. He did—yielding at the end of the opening lap—and that should’ve been McLaren’s moment to dictate the afternoon.
It wasn’t. Two laps to reset, one lap to pounce: Verstappen retook the lead at the start of Lap 4, late on the brakes and utterly committed, and that was the race’s last meaningful exchange. From there he checked out, managing the pace and massaging the tyres with the kind of authority that turns a grand prix into a time trial. Nineteen seconds at the flag. Monza doesn’t often do humiliation, but this was close.
Nico Rosberg, never shy about calling performance as he sees it, labelled the swing from qualifying to race “Verstappen magic.”
“Suddenly, bam, when it mattered, it was Verstappen magic,” the 2016 World Champion told Sky F1. “In qualifying I do think it was down to him, but then in the race, yes, again he was just unbelievable, but his car was also fast, which really came as a surprise to us, and to McLaren. Hats off to Red Bull, and, of course, to him for just such a special weekend.”
On the Norris pass that set up the runaway: “So late on the brakes, brilliant stuff, like really special, so impressive. And then the pace he had, relentless.”
Verstappen’s Monza victory was his third of the 2025 season and it stretched his championship lead over George Russell to 36 points. In a campaign shaped by McLaren’s weekly presence at the sharp end, that margin matters. It says that whenever Red Bull gives Verstappen a car that breathes at high speed, he doesn’t just win — he crushes.
This wasn’t merely fast; it was the sort of polished annihilation that answers a week’s worth of questions in 53 laps. Would McLaren’s tyre edge tell over a long run? Not when Verstappen could rip the sting out of the race by Lap 10. Would the pole lap be a one‑off? The gap at the finish suggested otherwise. Would the first‑lap skirmish linger? He gave the place back, passed cleanly and did his talking with the stopwatch.
Hill’s “driver of this age” line will rattle a few cages, but it’s increasingly hard to argue. The speed was known. The relentlessness, too. What Monza hammered home was the tidiness: the judgement at Turn 1, the reset after giving the place back, the precision under braking when it mattered. It was a complete weekend in a year where complete weekends are at a premium.
Red Bull came to Italy expecting a fight and left with a statement. McLaren remain the long‑run benchmark more often than not, Oscar Piastri and Norris still circling every Sunday. But when the calendar serves up low drag and long straights, Verstappen turns the dial to something few can match. Monza just put it in neon.
