Franz Tost compared Max Verstappen to seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher as he insisted: "Still we haven't seen the maximum from him yet".
The Dutchman secured his first world championship last season in controversial circumstances as he narrowly pipped Lewis Hamilton to the chequered flag. He is currently on course for a successful title defence, as he enjoys the security of an 80-point lead with nine races left in 2022.
Amid reliability and strategy problems at Ferrari and mistakes made by closest rival Charles Leclerc, Verstappen has been impressively consistent. And AlphaTauri chief Tost, who was the racer's first team principal in Formula 1 in his debut season, thinks his best is yet to come.
"I first met Max with his father at the Nürburgring," the Austrian told F1 Insider when asked to appraise the drivers he has taught in the past. "At that time he was still karting. The next time was at the Norisring in Formula 3.
"In the rain he drove in a league of his own, as if he was the only one who had discovered a dry line. He immediately reminded me of Michael Schumacher. You could see what mega talent Max was.
"We had to take criticism when we entrusted the Toro Rosso to him at the age of 17, as someone who didn't even have a driver's license. He also completed the first practice session in Suzuka, one of the most difficult tracks of all. But Max handled everything confidently. He never had any problems with the high speed of a Formula 1 car and always had everything under control from the start.
"In his first races he was sometimes a little too aggressive. This sometimes led to a crash, for example in Monaco with Romain Grosjean. Today he rides at an extremely high level. Still, we haven't seen the maximum from him yet."
Tost went on to claim that, of the current crop of rivals Verstappen has to contend with, Leclerc is the only racer capable of giving him a run for his money as he wrote off his 37-year-old opponent from last year. He added: "Only Charles Leclerc can come close to keeping up. The ravages of time have already gnawed at Lewis Hamilton."
Meanwhile, Tost also discussed his current driver pairing. Pierre Gasly, he believes, is "very talented and focussed", but he feels Yuki Tsunoda has improvements to make. He said of the Japanese racer: "Yuki has a crazy basic speed, but he needs to clear his mind. He has to drive more carefully, not so emotionally. If he can make that leap to the next mental level, he can become a great driver – but it's up to him now."
