With a combined ten F1 world championships between them, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, have cemented their status at the top of the motorsports hierarchy. However, there’s one driver who’s hot on their heels in the popularity rankings.
In 2021, the Dutchman pipped Hamilton to the post in one of the most exciting and controversial climaxes to a season we’ve ever seen, and simultaneously set-up one of the greatest rivalries in motorsports history.
While Hamilton currently holds the record for the most championships alongside Michael Schumacher, on seven, many believe at just 26, Verstappen has the potential not only to hit that figure but surpass it.
And he’s already smashing his nemesis out of the park on the Reddit threads. Research conducted by OLBG via a data scrape of the F1 subreddit, www.reddit.com/r/formula1/, an online community boasting over 3.4 million fans, confirms that prior to the Mexican GP, Verstappen received 1558 mentions, compared to Hamilton on 770.
READ MORE: WHO IS THE MOST POPULAR DRIVER IN F1? — LEWIS HAMILTON AND MAX VERSTAPPEN BATTLE IT OUT
Much to the Englishman’s annoyance, percentage-wise, his adversary has doubled his 10.07%, bagging a whopping, 20.37%. And to make matters worse, he’s only just fended off Sergio Perez, who secured a total of 8.09%, with 619 mentions. Therefore, it goes without saying, that he’ll be hoping to set some distance between himself and the Mexican at the Brazilian GP on November 5. However, with Perez’s car spiralling out of control at the start of the race last weekend, he’s got just as much of a reason as Hamilton does to want to showcase his skills in São Paulo.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton top list of Most Talked about drivers in user comments
| Driver | Number of Mentions | Percent |
| Max Verstappen | 1558 | 20.37% |
| Lewis Hamilton | 770 | 10.07% |
| Sergio Perez | 619 | 8.09% |
| Lance Stroll | 516 | 6.75% |
| Charles Leclerc | 436 | 5.70% |
| Fernando Alonso | 416 | 5.44% |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 397 | 5.19% |
| Carlos Sainz | 391 | 5.11% |
| Lando Norris | 388 | 5.07% |
| Logan Sargeant | 298 | 3.90% |
| Alex Albon | 273 | 3.57% |
| Valtteri Bottas | 249 | 3.26% |
| Esteban Ocon | 234 | 3.06% |
| George Russell | 228 | 2.98% |
| Yuki Tsunoda | 220 | 2.88% |
| Oscar Piastri | 206 | 2.69% |
| Pierre Gasly | 198 | 2.59% |
| Nico Hulkenberg | 105 | 1.37% |
| Zhou Guanyu | 82 | 1.07% |
| Kevin Magnussen | 63 | 0.82% |
| Total | 7647 | 1 |
Featured Image Credit: Getty
