Is Kyle Larson a better all-arounder than Max Verstappen? The F1 star responds (2025)

ZANDVOORT, Netherlands — While Max Verstappen enjoyed his Formula One summer break with friends and family, NASCAR’s Kyle Larson was stoking the debate about the Dutchman’s racing abilities.

After his second straight victory in the Knoxville Nationals sprint car event two weeks ago, Larson went on record to say he was “better than (Verstappen) as an all-around driver.”

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Per floracing.com, Larson said he doubted Verstappen would be able to beat him in sprint or stock car races, and that while he did not expect to be able to beat the Dutchman in open-wheel cars, “I think I would beat him in everything else. You can quote that.”

It did get quoted, and in doing so, it sparked a huge amount of discussion about who between Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion who impressed in his Indianapolis 500 debut earlier this year with McLaren, and Verstappen, the three-time F1 world champion, was better — and how one might even move to compare the two.

Larson’s comments didn’t bring much of a reaction from Verstappen on Thursday when he spoke ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix.

Told of those comments, Verstappen simply smiled and said: “That’s fine. Everyone thinks their own way, right?”

Verstappen has never cared much about what other drivers have to say or think about him, preferring to simply focus on his own performances. It’s an approach that has paid off, establishing him among the greatest drivers of his generation, if not F1 history, with a record 19 victories in 22 races last year.

But to believe that Verstappen can only succeed and operate within F1 is remiss of his interest in other disciplines. Verstappen has only ever raced in single-seaters since his graduation from go-karts in 2014, when he spent a single year in Formula Three before moving up to F1 the following year, setting the record as the youngest driver in the sport’s history. Since then, his focus has been on F1, winning races and championships in record-breaking fashion.

One ambition Verstappen holds is to one day compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside his father, Jos, who raced in F1 between 1994 and 2003. As recently as June, he showed an interest in racing the existing class of Hypercars at Le Mans in the future, but said he would want the rules to balance out the performance of the cars to be adjusted, believing it was currently “a bit hit-and-miss” at present.

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Verstappen has also privately tested some GT (grand tourer) sportscars over the years purely for fun. And that’s before looking at his deep interest in sim racing, where he regularly competes in the world’s biggest events — sometimes on the same weekend as F1, using his sim racing rig from his motorhome at the track — as part of Team Redline.

Larson’s success in disciplines outside of NASCAR supports his all-arounder claim. His Indy 500 run back in May as part of an attempt at the “double” with NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 has been the biggest story in American motorsports this year. To have qualified fifth and finished 18th, set back by a pit lane speeding penalty, was an impressive first effort.

Is Kyle Larson a better all-arounder than Max Verstappen? The F1 star responds (3)

Kyle Larson’s attempt at the Indy 500/Coca-Cola 600 “double” was the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion’s latest foray into other forms of racing. (James Gilbert / Getty Images)

Verstappen is keen to try his hand in other categories at some point but said it was “quite difficult to combine with F1 at the moment” with so many races on the calendar. It is also the reason why Verstappen, celebrating his 200th grand prix at Zandvoort this weekend, said on Thursday he doubts he will still be in F1 in another 200 races’ time.

“For sure, once I stop in Formula One, I would like to do other stuff a bit more,” Verstappen said. “Of course (it would be) relaxed, less races in general, but by relaxed I mean that you also have a bit more (time at) home.

“Because I know that once I compete in something, I want to be good, I want to win. But let’s see what opportunities will come by.”

It makes it difficult for Larson’s claim to be properly supported until such a point where Verstappen can try out different categories with the same kind of dedication he has given F1.

Larson also has an intense racing schedule, given the length and non-stop nature of the NASCAR calendar, but the midweek timings of other sprint car events, plus the more favorable geography in the United States compared to F1’s globe-trotting calendar, make it easier for him to dip into other categories.

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Only one driver on the F1 grid has truly made moves to establish himself as an all-arounder by racing in other disciplines: Fernando Alonso. And to properly pursue them, he had to briefly quit F1 altogether.

Alonso first entered the Indy 500 in 2017, skipping that year’s Monaco Grand Prix to enter with McLaren. He qualified fifth and led the early stages before eventually retiring due to an engine failure. He stepped away from F1 at the end of 2018 to focus on other categories, particularly sportscar racing, where he won Le Mans twice with Toyota along with the World Endurance Championship title.

Before returning to F1 in 2021, Alonso also entered the Dakar Rally, one of the fiercest races in the world taking place across the Saudi desert over two weeks, as part of his push to establish himself as one of racing’s greatest all-arounders. He finished 13th in his debut.

When Alonso was told of Larson’s comments about Verstappen, noting that Alonso’s interest in other categories put him in a good position to comment, the Spaniard could not help but note his own quality.

“I don’t know,” Alonso said. “I think Max is quite good in GTs as well, and I bet he’s good in everything …” Never short of self-confidence, he then added with a laugh: “But he’s still not as good as me.” Alonso did clarify that he meant across other categories, not F1, later adding: “In F1, I said he’s the same.”

The adaptation across disciplines was a challenge Alonso previously relished and felt was underestimated. “You need to adapt very quickly to different disciplines,” Alonso said. “Oval racing is one thing, a completely independent technique and deriving skills. (In the) Dakar Rally, pressing the throttle and the brake at the same time for six hours, just dominating the car, it’s not easy to adapt.”

At a time when Verstappen already feels F1’s calendar is beyond a reasonable limit for the number of races, adding in other events or disciplines at this point is unlikely. But it also points to the quality that has made him such a force within F1 since debuting back in 2015: his total dedication and commitment to being the very best at what he does.

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It is also why Verstappen finds the comparisons across series difficult to make. In an interview with Ash Vandelay, a motorsport streamer, at the Spanish Grand Prix, Verstappen said that “everyone is good in their own right” and the only way to get better at other disciplines was to learn from the best.

“You learn from better people, you have the experience, that’s how you then progress,” Verstappen said. “That’s why this debate of this guy is better than this one, really you don’t know. Everyone is good in their own right.”

Both Verstappen and Larson will go down among the all-time greats in their own disciplines when the time comes for them to hang up their helmets and retire.

Maybe that is enough without pinning one above the other.

GO DEEPERReviewing our 2024 F1 predictions: Double-downs and midseason mulligans

(Top photo of Max Verstappen on Thursday at the Dutch Grand Prix: Clive Rose / Getty Images)

Is Kyle Larson a better all-arounder than Max Verstappen? The F1 star responds (5)Is Kyle Larson a better all-arounder than Max Verstappen? The F1 star responds (6)

Luke Smith is a Senior Writer covering Formula 1 for The Athletic. Luke has spent 10 years reporting on Formula 1 for outlets including Autosport, The New York Times and NBC Sports, and is also a published author. He is a graduate of University College London. Follow Luke on Twitter @LukeSmithF1

Is Kyle Larson a better all-arounder than Max Verstappen? The F1 star responds (2025)
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