Former IndyCar racer turned F1 broadcaster James Hinchcliffe has shared his thoughts on whether Kyle Larson or Max Verstappen would come out on top of a battle…

2021 NASCAR Cup Champion Kyle Larson suggested last year that, in equal machinery, he could beat Max Verstappen – a theory that has been shot down by former IndyCar star James Hinchcliffe.

What did Kyle Larson say about Max Verstappen?

During the summer of 2024, Larson stated that he believes he’s the best all-around driver in the world, having won the Knoxville Nationals for the third time in four years.

“I know in my mind I am better than him [Verstappen] as an all-around driver,” Larson said, as reported by FloRacing.

“There’s no way he can get into a Sprint Car and win the Knoxville Nationals. There’s no way he can go win the Chili Bowl. There’s no way he can go win a Cup race at Bristol.”

The comments triggered some serious debate across motorsport disciplines, with fans of both sides debating over the relative merits of the two drivers in a futile bid to figure out who might be more deserving of being regarded as the stronger of the two.

Verstappen didn’t bother to dignify the debate with a considered response when the Red Bull driver was asked about Larson’s comments during a press conference ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix.

“That’s fine,” he said. “Everyone thinks their own way, right?”

James Hinchcliffe, a former star of IndyCar who now works as a broadcaster for F1TV, was asked for his opinion as he appeared on the Red Flags podcast this week, and the Canadian was blunt in his response.

“Look, I know Kyle. I have an incredible amount of respect for Kyle as a racing driver,” he said.

“There’s just no chance.

“Here’s the thing, this is how I try to settle this argument, right?

“If you want to see who’s the best, you take the, let’s say, the top five series in the world. So let’s say it’s F1 or IndyCar – a high downforce open-wheel car, right? A stock car, we’ll say a sports car, a prototype sports car, a GT style sports car, and then, like a rally car.

“Across those five disciplines, Max will win in four.

“It’s not Kyle’s fault. If you made those five cars, a Cup car, a Craftsman truck, a 410 sprint car, a midget, and a late modified, Kyle would win five out of five, right?

“But, if we’re looking at all the top levels of motorsport across the globe, his skill set is so unique to what he does, and he does it better than 99.9% of even professionals.

“But to try to compare to what Max does, or what he would be capable of in those particular cars, it’s not even a conversation.”

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Hinchcliffe praised Verstappen for doing what many drivers can’t do – keeping their mind focused on the driving while also having spare capacity for processing other things going on around him on track.

“One of the things we talk about with Verstappen a lot is just the reserve capacity he has when he’s driving a Formula 1 car,” he said, “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.

“The mental strain of doing that is it’s really tough to explain to people who have never done it. It is super, super difficult.

“To have the capacity, while doing that, to 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? Max is actually good at anything, Max is actually just good at everything.”

With Hinchcliffe revealing how he had to take the time to get to know everyone in the F1 paddock having only known “four people” when he arrived to begin his broadcasting career in the sport, the Canadian said Verstappen is consistently one of the nice guys of the paddock, despite his on-track persona.

“A lot of times you’ll see drivers have a different on-track personality from an off-track personality. I think Max is a great example of that,” Hinchcliffe said.

“On-track, he’s a stone-cold killer. He goes to the line and sometimes past it but, off-track, he’s just a dude who loves going racing and he’s actually a really nice kid.”

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