The often controversial Red Bull boss, Christian Horner, said that Max Verstappen is a better driver than current F1 Champion Lewis Hamilton. 

The British F1 driver managed to secure his seventh world championship last season, which to many makes him one of the best of all time.

However, there are groups amongst the world of F1 who are of the belief that, while the seven-time world champion drives the best car on the circuit, but there are better drivers out there.

In the eyes of Horner, one of those drivers is Verstappen.

Horner had this to say to Dutch website RacingNews365:

"Yes, I think he is the best, and George Russell's performance at Mercedes confirmed that for me.

"Max and Lewis stand out for me," he added. "But although we should definitely not be blind to what Hamilton has achieved, he does have a good package at his disposal, that while Max has to get more out of his car.

"At Mercedes, a Williams driver can qualify himself directly on the front row and Russell almost won the race," said the Briton.

"However, if at Red Bull someone had to get into Verstappen's car, for example if Max had corona, nobody would reach his level.

"His qualifying performances are of an exceptional level and his race craft is excellent, just like his tyre management," he said of his Dutch star, who ended the season just 9 points adrift of championship runner-up, Valtteri Bottas.

The Red Bull boss also believes that Verstappen’s racing IQ is superior to Hamilton’s as he added this to his statement:

"Max has become better at 'reading' the race, giving feedback to the team, but also dealing with disappointment, for example. He has matured very much in those areas."

He was also asked whether the Belgian driver has reached his full potential, Horner firmly said:

"No, I don't think so. The others have a hard time compared to Max's performance.”

"If you look at his performance in Abu Dhabi, his pole was phenomenal and then he controlled the race in a very mature way from start to finish."