David Coulthard points to clues that Lewis Hamilton is not at his peak anymore

David Coulthard has pointed to the clues that Lewis Hamilton may not be at his peak anymore, as the former Formula 1 driver chose Max Verstappen over the seven-time champion as his greatest world champion.

Coulthard was tasked with choosing his top F1 champion during an episode of The Red Flags Podcast. As he whittled down the list, which included drivers such as Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Juan Manuel Fangio and Sir Jackie Stewart, the former Red Bull driver eventually had to choose between Hamilton and Verstappen.

"I'm going to go with Max, and this won't surprise some people who know me and like me and know me and dislike me, for the following reasons. I think that every generation should be better. That's what evolution is," he explained.

"I think that there's a crossover of generations there, and Hamilton has been incredible. But there's also a little bit of a disconnect in some ways. Max I find very grounded, if he's here, it's just Max, he's present and we know when he's doing his interviews and press conferences, if he's not happy he says it and he's not shy to say that. He owns his beliefs, whether he's happy, whether he's sad."

After missing out on an eighth championship title by losing to Verstappen in 2021, Hamilton was ready to come back fighting in 2022. But with the change in regulations not suiting his driving style as well as he would have hoped and Mercedes not producing the most dominant car, the Briton faced an uphill battle.

Hamilton moved to Ferrari in 2025 and has been working to adapt to the new team.

"So I'll go with Verstappen because they're very difficult to separate in terms of Hamilton at his peak, and I keep saying that because I'm not sure that he is at his peak anymore, controversial for a loser like me to dare to say that," Coulthard added.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

"But it just feels the greats match their team-mates or beat their team-mates. And in the last couple of years, if I'm not mistaken, he didn't do that with George [Russell]. And it doesn't feel like he's done that with Charles [Leclerc].

"So if we put opinions to one side and we just use the two things that are ultimately important in Formula 1, it's a stopwatch, and it's a chequered flag. Everything else is opinion.

"So the stopwatch gives you your qualifying position, as we know, chequered flag gives you the number-one trophy, and I think that the outright speed is maybe not there with Lewis anymore. But you've got to give him so much respect, but Max, it still feels like he's developing, it still feels there's more to come."