Max Verstappen responds to Kyle Larson claim that he's the better driver

Recently, Kyle Larson claimed to be a better overall driver than Max Verstappen, but what does the Formula One champion think? There is no doubt that Verstappen has dominated the last three years in his own series. But overall, is the NASCAR driver better?

This debate is hard to have. At least, it’s hard to make comparisons between the two drivers. In open-wheel cars, karting, etc – there is almost no doubt Max Verstappen has the upper hand. But we saw Kyle Larson hop into an IndyCar and qualify P5 for the Indy 500.

I don’t doubt Verstappen would pick up stock car racing or dirt racing quickly, if he wanted to. Based on what we have seen from Larson, I don’t think it would take that long for him to get up to speed and be a winning driver in F1, if he was with the right team.

Verstappen was already asked about Larson’s comments, but he responded to them once again this week. The American has no doubt he is more versatile than Verstappen. The Dutch driver doesn’t want to get into it.

“That’s fine,” Verstappen said of Larson’s comments, via Luke Smith of The Athletic. “Everyone thinks their own way, right?”

Truth be told, we likely will never see a head-to-head competition between these two drivers. The best we could hope for is a meeting in the same category of the Daytona 24 Hours or perhaps Le Mans.

Even then, that isn’t a one-on-one competition, with multiple drivers per car. So, we’ll never know.

Kyle Larson keeps doing Kyle Larson things

While his results on the NASCAR track haven’t jumped out recently, Kyle Larson is still doing what he does best – racing any and everything that he can. Recently, Larson won his second straight Knoxville Nationals in a sprint car, he has led every lap of the main event the last two years.

While many who aren’t familiar with the dirt world find a reason to discredit the discipline, it’s not an easy ride. Larson is not going up against random guys, these are real, professional racecar drivers who specialize in dirt sprint car racing. They make as much money, if not more than many NASCAR drivers.

In America, there are a lot of racing disciplines to choose from. Sports cars, stock cars, dirt late models, sprint cars, karts, and more. In Europe, the focus is almost exclusively on karting and Formula racing.

So, is Max Verstappen a worse or better driver than Kyle Larson? Who really knows. We do know they are both at the top of their class and are two of the best to ever go fast in a racecar. We should appreciate them both while we can.