Mark Webber has described the potential of Red Bull's Max Verstappen as "frightening". Verstappen, currently 19, took his first Formula 1 victory at the age of 18 at last year's Spanish Grand Prix on his debut for Red Bull. With a further 7 podiums to his name since, Webber says there is still much more potential.

"He's still so young. He doesn't know how much more he's going to learn yet, which is a frightening thing," said Webber. "He's still putting the jigsaw together. The only way he can do it is throw eggs against the wall, and that's going Grand Prix racing, so he's doing that right now. He's on fire there."

Webber, who raced for Red Bull from 2007 to 2013 has compared Verstappen's overtaking techniques to Fernando Alonso, who, despite currently racing at the back of the grid, has shown much flair throughout his career,

"He likes the outside at Turn 1, it's a bit of a Fernando [Alonso] move, which paid off in Montreal, but didn't pay off in Barcelona, where they were three-wide. So there are a few things like that which he'll look at how and when he's going to manage that going forward. But he's a phenomenal talent and he's on fire at the moment."

Verstappen has been disappointed with his season so far, retiring from 50% of races while watching teammate Daniel Ricciardo take Red Bull's first victory of the season last time out in Azerbaijan.

Fergal Walsh