Verstappen names his 2025 standouts — and pointedly, it’s not Hamilton
Asked to pick the sharpest operators on today’s grid, Max Verstappen went for Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso — and left Lewis Hamilton out altogether. For a rivalry forged in 2021 fire and still simmering on the edges of 2025, that’s the kind of omission fans don’t miss.
Speaking to Mundo Deportivo, the Red Bull driver broke his choices down by skill set. Leclerc, he said, is the benchmark over one lap and a force in traffic. Alonso? The complete Sunday package: racecraft, defence, intelligence and the kind of competitive edge that doesn’t age.
“Phew, that’s difficult,” Verstappen admitted when asked to pick the best qualifier. “But I think currently… I’ve always considered Charles Leclerc to be a very good driver in qualifying.” He doubled down a moment later: “Charles Leclerc is also good at overtaking.”
Then he turned to Alonso with obvious admiration. “I’ve always liked watching Fernando race, even in the past. He’s a real fighter. I really like that.” Verstappen called the Aston Martin star “brilliant in defence,” named him the grid’s most intelligent driver — “I would always opt for experience” — and said that, “without a doubt,” Alonso has the strongest mentality.
Notably absent from every category: Hamilton.
That won’t land softly in a season that’s already tested the seven-time champion’s patience. Hamilton, now 40 and in his first year in Ferrari red, has endured a lean 2025 so far. After two wins in 2024 broke a long drought, he’s yet to climb onto the podium this year and has been chasing the rhythm — and points haul — of teammate Leclerc in the new environment.
It all reads like another quiet chapter in a story that began with that bruising 2021 title fight, settled in Abu Dhabi amid controversy as Verstappen took his first crown and Hamilton was denied a record eighth. Since then, Verstappen has turned domination into a habit, and his latest win at Monza underlined just how ruthlessly he’s owned the ground‑effect era introduced in 2022.
There was a dash of diplomacy elsewhere from Verstappen. Asked to name the most charismatic driver on the grid, he waved it away: “Actually, it doesn’t matter. Not for driving an F1 car.” And on the never-ending “greatest of all time” question, he refused the bait: “For me, it’s impossible to say. There are so many great drivers from different eras. I think it’s more important to simply appreciate all the great drivers that have ever existed.”
Read another way, Verstappen’s choices track with reality as much as rivalry. Leclerc remains one of the sport’s purest qualifying weapons — the guy who can wring a lap out of thin air when a circuit rubbered-in and the sun’s dropping. Alonso, meanwhile, has rebuilt his late career on guile and grim determination, turning average Sundays into big points with crafty positioning and brutal consistency.
And Hamilton? The résumé doesn’t need defending, but Verstappen’s list was a snapshot of now, and now hasn’t been kind. That could change quickly; Ferrari’s raw speed has been easier to find than its operating window, and a single clean weekend can redraw the narrative. If it does, expect Hamilton’s name to reappear the next time someone asks Verstappen to name his best of the best.
Until then, the world champion’s verdict is clear enough: in 2025, the one-lap assassin wears red, the Sunday street-fighter wears green — and the biggest name in the sport has some proving to do in scarlet.
