Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen may have dominated Formula 1 in recent years, but Naomi Schiff is not convinced they are the two most talented racers on the current grid.
Hamilton is regarded as one of the greatest ever and holds a swathe of records. Between 2014 and 2020, only his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg denied him the drivers' title – in 2016, before the German promptly announced his retirement from the sport.
Verstappen has taken over as the sport's dominant force. After edging out Hamilton in their blockbuster 2021 title fight, the Dutchman strolled to the 2022 title and got off to the ideal start with a very comfortable win in the first race of the new campaign earlier this month.
The other star of the show in that Bahrain race was Fernando Alonso. His new Aston Martin team flexed their muscles in the first race of the season and showed off a car which was slower only than the dominant Red Bulls.
The Spaniard drove to a third-placed finish – a performance which included eye-catching overtakes on Hamilton and Carlos Sainz as his team sent a warning to the other usual front-runners, Mercedes and Ferrari.
It was evidence that Aston Martin could challenge this year and, for Sky Sports presenter Naomi Schiff, a strong example of Alonso's driving ability. She even went as far as to suggest the Spaniard might have Hamilton and Verstappen beat if all the current drivers on the F1 grid were given equal machinery.
She said: "Max is one of those drivers and so is Lewis, but I don't know. As I've grown up, always looking up to Lewis and as much as I grew up on karting circuits with Max, knowing that Max would win everything, I think Fernando might just trump them in the sense that he's so much more mature.
"He's been in it for so long. I think even last year, we could see it in the Alpine and that there were moments that he was just extracting the absolute maximum out of their car. In an on track battle, he always gets the one up somehow, he just always knows exactly where to put his car.
"So, in my ideal world, I'd love to see them all in one team and who comes out on top." Schiff went on to explain what makes Alonso so special and how he is able to still show his ability at the highest level when his 42nd birthday is only a few months away.
She added: "When you're on track, it's a lot about demeanour and body language, and there are some drivers that you'll have a clean battle with, there are some drivers you need to worry about and some drivers you need to be scared of. And I think Fernando is definitely one of those drivers that you have to give a lot of respect to.
"He's the kind of the guy that you wouldn't want to play chess with, because he's always three steps ahead and that's just in everything he's thinking about when he's in the car. He knows where to put his car, he knows exactly where to make the moves, he knows exactly how to defend.
"To be fair, he's spent over two decades in the sport so he's collected an insane amount of experience, which obviously, is the most important thing, as time trumps everything else. But he's also just a very special driver. And I think every now and again, you get these kinds of drivers in all sorts of categories that just really stand out. Fernando is most certainly one of those."
