David Coulthard was faced with the difficult challenge of picking between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in a World Champion shoot-out.

Taking part in an off-season podcast, Coulthard was tasked with choosing between World Champion drivers in a series of head-to-heads that saw contemporary World Champions Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton make it into the final stages.

David Coulthard: It’s very difficult to separate Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen

Through a series of head-to-heads, Coulthard had whittled his list of greatest World Champions down to Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, and the two famous rivals of recent years, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

The challenge took place on the Red Flags podcast, and the Scottish driver was given the unenviable task of being asked to pick between Verstappen and Hamilton.

“I’m going to go with Max,” Coulthard said.

“This won’t surprise some people who know me and like me, and know me and dislike me!

“For the following reasons. I think that every generation should be better. That’s what evolution is. I think that there’s a crossover of generations there, and Hamilton has been incredible.

“But there’s also a little bit of a disconnect in some ways, where… and this whole thing is a personal opinion, I find Max very grounded. It’s just Max, he’s present, and we know when he’s doing his interviews and press conferences, if he’s not happy, he says it, and he’s not shy to say that. He owns his beliefs.

“You know whether he’s happy, you know whether he’s sad. So I go with Verstappen. They’re very difficult to separate the two of them, in terms of Hamilton at his peak.

“I’m not sure that he is at his peak anymore… controversial for a loser like me to dare to say that, but it just feels the greats match or beat their teammates, and, in the last couple of years, if I’m not mistaken, he didn’t do that with George, and it doesn’t feel like he’s done that with Charles.

“So, if we put opinions to one side and we just use what the two things that are ultimately important in Formula 1, the stopwatch and the chequered flag, I think the outright speed is maybe not there with Lewis anymore.

“But you’ve got to give him so much respect. But with Max, it still feels like he’s developing. It still feels there’s more to come. It still feels like, how far can this guy go?”

With Verstappen being over 10 years younger than Hamilton, it was put to the Scot that the Dutch driver has benefited from modern racing simulations, even for use at home, that have helped him develop a sharper edge than Hamilton, who didn’t have such technological aids during his childhood.

“There’s no question it [a sim] would have enhanced my experience and my knowledge,” he said.

“But I think you can’t ever really regret what you never had. It just didn’t exist in my time. We’re born into the eras we’re born, and it’s our duty, as human beings, to try to survive and try to do the best we can, armed with the information and the tools we have.

“The benefit for Max is that he’s the son of a former Grand Prix driver [Jos Verstappen] who had arrived, wonderfully fast, but I think he wasn’t as physically well prepared and was up against Schumacher in the Benetton.

“It kind of didn’t manifest itself in the same way as it might have done, given his talent. I think he made it his mission with Max to right the wrongs of his own career.

“He absolutely has so credit to Jos and Sophie, Max’s mother, they’ve created this incredible athlete and incredible racing driver with so much speed.”

But, while Coulthard may have chosen Verstappen over Hamilton, the four-time F1 World Champion still lost out in Coulthard’s ultimate list as he selected Ayrton Senna as his all-time great.

Having replaced Senna at Williams following the Brazilian’s death at Imola 1994, Coulthard said Senna’s own positive words about him to Sir Frank Williams played a big part in him making the grid in the first place, and said that he’s never seen a driver with the same aura around him as what Senna had when their careers briefly overlapped at the Grove-based squad.

Confirming Senna as his number one pick, Coulthard said, “The reason I say that is because, if I’m not mistaken, I’ve even heard Max acknowledge his admiration for what Ayrton achieved in that era and his single-minded approach, if he believed in something, he was not swayed from that.

“Of the four, Schumacher, Hamilton, Senna, Verstappen, arguably, Lewis is the least controversial on track, which should be acknowledged, of course, but, having worked with Senna, having experienced being in a room with people and the room falling silent because Ayrton’s come in from a back door and is standing there, and slowly but surely, you felt his presence.

“There was something, in my opinion, and I’m not a spiritual person, that’s the only time, I think, in my life, where you felt the presence of someone before you saw them.

“Therefore, based on my personal experience there… Max is way too grounded. He’s a great, of course, and will continue to do amazing things. But Ayrton Senna.”