Adrian Newey is famous for producing many of the championship winning cars of the last few decades in Formula One, and in his time got to work with a range of world champions, from names like Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, all the way through to more recently Sebastian Vettel and now Max Verstappen.

Speaking to RacingNews365.com, Newey has explained what makes Verstappen the great champion that he is – a combination of natural ability and a great work ethic that pushes the team in the right direction:

"Obviously, you have to have a unique genetic makeup that makes you good at whatever your sport is, so Formula 1 is (the) judgement of speed, reactions, balance, etc.

"That gets you to a certain level and, of course, you see some drivers that are naturally very good, but don't perhaps achieve as much as they should do. And you see other drivers who are the opposite.

"I think Max (Verstappen) is one of those ones that combines both – where he has an obviously tremendous natural ability, but he also has an inner determination and grit to him that shines through."

"Max is a very good example of the modern driver," he said.

Newey underlines that, even though we’re in a very technological era in the sport, with data sets larger than ever, driver feedback is still “incredibly important” and praises the Dutchman for his very detailed description of the car’s behaviour:

"Obviously, [when] you go back to before data recorders, the only thing the race engineer had to go on really was the driver's feedback. So the feedback of the driver, and the feel the driver had, was all-important.

"Now, with data recorders, you could argue that you don't need that. But, in my view, in truth you do, because data recorders tell you what the car is doing.

"[But it's] very difficult to see why the car is doing it – that's where the driver comes in. So his feedback is important, and then it's trying to marry the two.

"Max's feedback... [he] won't tell you, 'I think I should stiffen the front spring' or something [like that]. But he will tell you, in great accuracy, what the car is doing. And that, for the engineer, is incredibly important."

Max Verstappen out on track in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian GP - Image by Hasan Bratic - MotorLAT

Asked about where Verstappen would rank among the all-time greats, Newey said it’s “not possible” and “very unfair” to make a ranking between such drivers:

"I'm really not gonna be drawn into that," he said.

"I've been lucky enough to work with some of the all-time greats. To then rank those, I think it's A. not possible, and B. would be very unfair to do so, in any case!" he concluded.