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Hinchcliffe points at Verstappen's talent: 'Are you kidding me, how?'
- Savannah Lenz
In 2026, a new team will join the Formula 1 grid. The 11th team will be Cadillac Racing, and for many drivers, this could be an opportunity for them to make the move from IndyCar to F1, where the brand are already established. But how does a driver make it from IndyCar to Formula 1, and what do they need to succeed? James Hinchcliffe weighs in and points out Max Verstappen.
There have been a few drivers to move between racing in America to Formula 1 and vice versa. One example would be Juan Pablo Montoya won seven races in Formula 1. Sebastien Bourdais is another one who made the move and drove in the Champ Car World Series. He drove in Formula 1 in 2008 and 2009.
IndyCar drivers in Formula 1?
It has since been a while a driver travelled across the Atlantic Ocean that ways. On the Red Flags Podcast, Hinchcliffe was asked about the move from IndyCar to Formula 1 and how hard it would be.
Hinchliffe replied, "That's what's so interesting about motorsports. There is no universal talent to driving. There are drivers that are super, super talented in a specific car. And then you switch them to a different car, even if it's a similar car, and they just can't quite hit it the same way.".
He continued, "You even see that in F1 within different teams because of the different characteristics of a car, right? Like nobody, famously, nobody can drive Max's car because of how he likes to go fast, or at least how Newey likes to build a car, and Max can figure out how to drive it fast where others can't."
According to Hinchcliffe, some drivers in IndyCar would also do well in Formula 1. Hinchcliffe went as far as to mention Alex Palou, Josef Newgarden and Colton Herta, as he thinks they have the same talent as Verstappen.
'Verstappen is good at everything'
"One of the things we talk about Verstappen a lot is just the, the reserve capacity he has when he's driving a Formula One car, like the mental capacity that he has in reserve on hand when he is 10 tenths, flat out, leading a race, managing tyres, managing everything," Hinchcliffe said. "Like the mental strain of doing that is, it's really tough to explain to people that have never done it. It is super, super difficult. And to have the capacity to like, while doing that, be like, hey, I don't think Lando backed off all the way in that yellow flag. Do you mind looking into that real quick? Are you kidding me?"
Referring back to a statement he made earlier, he said, "Max is actually just good at everything. I take that statement, what I said earlier about you can't be good at everything; yeah, Max is actually just good at everything."
This article was written in collaboration with Cas van de Kleut.
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