Daniel Ricciardo reckons the young man sitting on the other side of the Red Bull Racing garage is the toughest team mate he's had so far in F1.
In 2014, when the Aussie was promoted to Red Bull's senior team, he was up against a fierce opposition from his four-time world champion team mate Sebastian Vettel.
Yet Ricciardo still won three races that year while the German driver failed to triumph even once.
Of all the team mates he has encountered in his seven years of F1, the Honey Badger labels Max Verstappen as the toughest of them all.
"I don’t want to take anything away from Seb - he is and was and still is a great driver - but I believe Max is the toughest teammate," Ricciardo said in an interview with Britain Channel Four.
"Hopefully he says the same for me!"
Ricciardo and Verstappen enjoy a good relationship at Red Bull, but the 'entente' was put to the ultimate test after this year's Hungarian GP when the Dutch driver promptly took out his team mate out at the start of the race.
"The marshal was pulling me off the track, I was like ‘don’t touch me’, I really wanted to wait for Max to drive past," Ricciardo remembered
"In the heat of the moment I may have said some things… but I still feel that I handled myself all right.
"We’ve moved on. Obviously I was upset but that was out of my control, so what more can I do?
"He apologised like a man, that was important. We had a private sit down, pretty much like we are now but without the cameras, and we spoke so that was important."
Despite securing a win in Baku earlier this year, Ricciardo admitted he is nowhere near where he wants to be right now as he yearns for a consistently competitive car.
"I’ve got to make the most of what I’ve got right now and I feel I have," said the 28-year-old.
"When I do get podiums, or even Monza when I got up to fourth place, for me that makes me happy.
"It’s not the ultimate goal of what I want but in the present moment I’m getting everything out of what I can so it’s making me happy enough."
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