Sebastian Vettel has never been one for empty flattery. When the four-time World Champion says a driver’s changed, he means there’s real substance behind it. On Beyond The Grid, Vettel laid out how two old rivals, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, have evolved—and why that matters for the next wave, like Oscar Piastri.
Vettel started with Hamilton, and went straight to the moment that still lives rent-free in F1’s collective memory: Abu Dhabi 2021. His takeaway wasn’t about rules or race control; it was about composure.
“For me, one of the most incredible moments of emotional intelligence and composure was Lewis in 2021, in that moment where he was not winning the championship,” Vettel said. “To act the way he did… that alone, or together with everything else he has achieved, says so much about his strength and his character.”
It’s a useful counterpoint to the Hamilton who arrived in 2007 breathing fire and overtaking Fernando Alonso around the outside at Turn 1 in Melbourne. That was a teenager’s bravado; spellbinding, a little wild, utterly Hamilton. Vettel’s point is that the veteran version—now a record-equalling seven-time World Champion—calculates. He still pulls the trigger, but with a longer view of risk, reward and the race beyond Turn 1.
“You can still do it later,” Vettel said of those first-lap dives, “but the chances are different that he would take that gamble.” When you’ve sat on the front rows in a car with pace, you know losing a spot at the start isn’t fatal; you’ll get it back over 300 kilometers. Hamilton’s arc, in Vettel’s eyes, is proof that speed is only half of it. The rest is judgment.
He sees a similar adjustment in Verstappen—arguably the most visible evolution of any modern champion. The early years were elbows-out, every gap a green light. The current iteration, Vettel suggests, is still ferocious but far more selective.
“You look at Max in his first one, two, three, four years—and you look at his behaviour now—he’s much more mature and holding back,” Vettel said. “He still goes for the impossible gaps and makes them possible, which is great and his skill, but he doesn’t go for all the gaps, because he knows they’re not important right now.”
That last line is the crux. Verstappen hasn’t lost his edge; he’s refined it. When the day demands it—traffic to clear, strategy to unlock, damage to undo—he’s still the most ruthless overtaker on the board. When it doesn’t, the impatience has gone. No panic, no wasted moves, no drama for drama’s sake.
Vettel wrapped back to the present and to Oscar Piastri, now three seasons deep and already a fixture at the sharp end. The Australian earned high marks from Sebastian for a “very mature head” and “a lot of racing intelligence,” which is precisely the toolkit that, with time, turns sharp rookies into race managers and title contenders.
The comparison isn’t about crowning heirs; it’s about trajectory. Hamilton’s early fireworks hardened into an unflappable racecraft. Verstappen’s combativeness became calculated control. Piastri, Vettel implied, has the raw materials—and the temperament—to make a similar leap.
One more note from Vettel on Hamilton, delivered with the kind of quiet authority that comes from wheel-to-wheel experience over a decade: “Lewis was peaking in year one, but I think he was getting a much more mature driver later on.” It’s a neat way of saying that talent pops; greatness ages well.
As ever with Vettel, the subtext matters. He’s raced them both at their best, and he knows what separates speed from sustained supremacy. If you’re Piastri—or any young driver—this is the blueprint: raw pace will get you noticed, restraint wins you Sunday. And coming from a four-time champion who watched both Hamilton and Verstappen sharpen their tools in front of him, that’s not nostalgia. It’s a map.
