There seem to be quite a few motivations for these critiques and compliments of other drivers, really.
First of all, you could really think this one guy is the best, because you've taken a good look at yourself and decided that, comparatively, you don't reach up to him. Yeah, right.
Then again, every racing driver supposedly loves the cliché that he‘s the best, that no one could ever beat him, and if they do, it‘s only because of better material, unfortunately random circumstance, favouritism (of somebody else, of course) or, say, mafia-esque aliens stationed somewhere around Alpha Centauri bending reality out of shape.
Then, there‘s the motivation to say another driver is the best ever, because then, if you beat him after all, you can talk about how much more value it gives to your title that you managed to score it while XY was competing.
As another variant, if a driver comes back from retirement, he might maintain a position that he‘s only doing this for the fun of it, even if the great results elude him.
That sounds great and funny, especially if you mention how the other drivers around you would be young enough to go through as your children.
But then again, you don‘t say that because you want to have an excuse when they get better results than you, right?
The new guys, on the other hand, might position themselves saying that XY is just another driver, that racing against him just helps them realise how every driver is just the same, beatable, with some kind of weakness.
Yet you can see young drivers putting so much energy in making a point to defeat and outrace this one driver. I thought he was just one of twenty-three identical opponents?
Then, there‘s the whole complex of saying you are more likely to win the championship, because that other driver over there makes too many mistakes.
Yet you might have crashed out of this race, missed the top ten in that qualifying, and lost valuable points colliding with this other guy.
It just goes on and on, doesn‘t it?
That‘s really the kind of acting part of the sport that I pretty much try to ignore at this point...