Former IndyCar and NASCAR racer Danica Patrick has stated that Lewis Hamilton could beat Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso if they were all driving the same car, insisting that the Aston Martin and Red Bull duo would get caught up 'going at it'.
No matter how skilled an individual driver might be, they can only go as fast as their car allows them.
It is therefore for this reason why the debate over who the greatest driver ever to have competed in the sport will never have a final answer.
Yet Patrick believes that if Hamilton, Alonso and Verstappen – three names constantly brought up in the ongoing debate – found themselves in the same equipment, there would be one eventual winner.
Snatching the lead
Asked on the Sky Sports F1 podcast who would win if their machinery was the same, she said: “I mean, it’s pretty tough for me to not keep thinking about Fernando Alonso.
“And just his ability to…I mean, he’s 41, he’s re-emerged as so competitive and just doing that over and over again, like his second coming, I think it’s just so impressive.
“You can’t exclude Max, I think when you apply all the styles that will be a pretty great duo right there, between Max and Alonso, because they’re both pretty aggressive too, so that would be fun to watch.
“I’d be really curious to see where Lewis fell in that too, because obviously he’s had so much success with all of his championships, I think that he might be really, really close right there.
“And especially when you take into a race consideration, the length of it, he’s just so consistent, he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. And so he’d be snatching the lead when those two are going at it.”