Red Bull's technical director compares Max Verstappen to Roger Federer and Michael Jordan

Red Bull's technical director Pierre Wache highlighted the extraordinary abilities of reigning world champion Max Verstappen, comparing him to iconic sports figures like Roger Federer and Michael Jordan

Red Bull enjoyed a strong start to its 2024 F1 title defence, winning four of the opening five rounds. It looked like that the Milton Keynes-based outfit would dominate the third year of the current era of ground-effect cars until McLaren and Ferrari achieved a sudden lift in performance.

The Scuderia won in Australia and then in Monaco while the British squad took the victory in Miami. Following a successful upgrade in Monaco, Mercedes also started to claw its way back to the sharp end of the field. So impressive was the step the Brackley-headquartered outfit took that they managed to win three of the last four races before the summer break.

Although McLaren and Mercedes have closed in on Red Bull performance-wise, the three-time world champion still enjoys a healthy lead in the standings.

Red Bull technical director praises Verstappen for doing the 'impossible', claiming that the Dutchman can extract more from his car than most of the drivers.

Elaborating on Verstappen's exceptional talent, Wache stated: "Some people can do things no one else can. I don't know exactly how or why, but it's what Max can do."

"It is a challenge to make a car so fast that the driver can use it to its full potential. If I were behind the wheel myself, I wouldn't be able to get the same performance out of it. The cars are controlled in a very specific way by the driver, and how he handles them is crucial."

"He is like Roger Federer, like Michael Jordan. People like this can do things that seem impossible for others. The driver is the ultimate controller in the car, and Max has the capacity to control it in a way that is unique."