He stressed that the Italian team didn’t push the Red Bull driver hard enough this year.
Verstappen won 19 of the 22 races over the course of this season, missing out twice to his team-mate Sergio Perez in early races, and then to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz when Red Bull had an off-weekend at the Singapore GP in September.
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The Dutchman also got through the year having sustained virtually no damage to his RB19, although he did make contact with George Russell in Las Vegas, an incident that led to a penalty for the Mercedes driver.
“I think it is not sure that someone has a doubt on this, he did a mega season,” he said when asked by Autosport to assess Verstappen’s year.
“He was fighting with Checo in the first two or three events and then he was on another planet.
“Clearly, he didn’t do a mistake all season, and when he struggled in quali, like in Jeddah, it was due to a mechanical issue. And then he was always there, always making good starts, no contact. The only one was Vegas.
Source: Autosport