Max Verstappen has been urged to avoid earning a reputation for dirty driving like Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna.
Aged 24, Verstappen is already a world champion but not everyone was pleased with how he fought the 2021 title battle. On many occasions he was accused of being too aggressive while racing against Lewis Hamilton, especially in the latter half of the campaign.
Ex-racer and experienced pundit Martin Brundle believes the Dutchman has matured this season and praised him for his "fair and professional" driving. He wants to see the Red Bull star continue to race cleanly, to avoid cementing a reputation as a nasty piece of work on the track.
"Max once again was very fair and professional in his driving and defence," Brundle wrote in his Sky Sports F1 column recapping the Austrian Grand Prix. "Generally he is this year, albeit very much pushing the limits in his defence against Mick Schumacher the week before at Silverstone.
"I remember commenting in Jeddah last year Michael Schumacher's, and to an extent Ayrton Senna's amazing legacies are partly diminished by some dirty driving, and that Max would do well to avoid that career reputation. It will be interesting to see how that goes if push literally comes to shove in the championship."
Verstappen currently enjoys a 38-point lead at the top of the standings, and is well-placed for a successful title defence at the half-way stage of the season. But Brundle was keen to point out that Ferrari would be right up there with Red Bull had it not been for their reliability woes.
After Carlos Sainz failed to score any points, as his car caught fire following an engine blowout, he believes the time is nearing for Ferrari to start focussing their resources on Charles Leclerc. "The Ferrari is fragile and Sainz's power unit blow-up was bodywork shattering, followed by a very expensive fire in this cost cap era," he added.
"Fresh from his inaugural victory at Silverstone, Sainz was absolutely gutted, a guaranteed at least second place gone up in smoke. As we move into the second half of the season the trailing Ferrari team must be close to calling off the battle between their two drivers and he will be aware of this. It was a very painful and sad moment for him championship wise.
"But Leclerc then suffered a throttle pedal issue in the closing stages during which he might have been better keeping some of the radio information away from Race Control and Red Bull, but sweet victory was his and he fully deserved it."
