Nikita Bedrin: My Ultimate Driver

He signed off at Spa-Francorchamps with a podium and arguably his finest Formula 3 performance to date, so we asked Nikita Bedrin about his ultimate driver.

Picking the best traits from the best drivers, here is what the Jenzer Motorsport man came up with.

QUALIFYING PACE

“To be fair, probably Max Verstappen because lately he’s been really great in Qualifying. I think he’s in his peak right now so I’d probably go for Verstappen. His lap at Monaco was brilliant. He was two-tenths down and was then on pole by three-tenths, that was quite impressive. Every time he drives Qualifying, he’s always 100% on the limit, so that’s the most impressive thing about him I find.”

DRIVING INTELLIGENCE

“Probably go with Lewis Hamilton. He’s won many World Championships, he always finishes the races and now he’s not in the quickest car, he’s still always there, scoring good points so I would say he’s really good for intelligence.”

DRIVING IN THE WET

“I don’t know. Maybe George Russell. At Spa-Francorchamps he did really well in 2021 with Qualifying and a podium with Williams. It’s difficult to say, there are not too many races in the wet nowadays and if there are, it’s always Verstappen in first but it’s quite difficult to say. I could say Ayrton Senna because he was always impressive in the wet for sure.”

CORNERING ABILITY

“I will go for Michael Schumacher, he was a very great driver and he was always quick, so I’ll go for him.”

BRAVERY

“Here for sure it’s Max. He’s not scared of anything. Every race he goes for a move and he’s 100% committed. Every time there’s an opportunity, he’ll go for it. In that title fight with Lewis, he didn’t hold back, and he would fully send it.”

TYRE MANAGEMENT

“This one for sure is Lewis. He’s really brilliant with those tyres. Every time he says they’re done, he goes and sets a fastest lap. He’s always impressed me with that in the past watching Formula 1. He was really good with tyre management in the past and in this era he impresses me the most with the management.”

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RISK TAKING

“It’s going to be Max, but I’ll say Senna as well because both of them are risk takers. With Senna, especially on that Qualifying lap in Monaco, it was special.”

SMOOTH OR AGGRESSIVE?

“I would say quite an aggressive driving style because you need to be in order to be quick. That’s what I’ve learned this year with this car. Smoothness is mainly for the races with tyre management, but I think you have to be aggressive through most of the race. Not aggressive as in stupid but thinking about it as well.”

OVERTAKING ABILITY

“Ok I would say I haven’t seen many races in the past of both drivers so I’ll just go with either Max Verstappen or Fernando Alonso.”