Formula One news: F1 champion Max Verstappen adds racing simulator to $22m private jet
Red Bull star Max Verstappen has taken his bid for a third F1 world championship to the next level, taking his race training to the skies.
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Two-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen is leaving nothing to chance in his quest to stay at the top of the grid, installing a racing simulator on his $22 million private jet.
That is according to Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko, who revealed the extent of Verstappen’s love affair with racing had extended to training and competing in the sky – adding a new definition to the term ‘flying lap’.
“He even had his private plane converted so that he can fly a simulator in the air in the future,” Marko told Germany’s Sport1.
“But that’s a good thing, too, because Max needs this distraction. In any case, it didn’t do him any harm when it came to his two titles.”
The Dutchman has made no secret of his racing passions outside of Formula 1, having spent much of the off-season competing in various virtual races.
Verstappen was recently embroiled in a different kind of racing controversy, when his Virtual Le Mans 24 hours chances were scuppered by server issues.
The 25-year-old held a sizeable lead with six hours to go in the online iteration of the famous race, when he was disconnected and soon returned to the track in 15th place, two laps behind the new leader.
He subsequently quit the race in frustration.
“They call it amazingly bad luck, well this is just incompetence,” vented Verstappen on his live Twitch stream.
“They can’t even control their own game.”
Verstappen labelled the event a “clown show” and threatened to never again participate in the virtual race.
But that seemingly has not ended his love of sim racing, given the recent addition to his private jet.
Formula 1 drivers spend just as much time in simulators as they do on the track. The technology helps drivers and teams hone their cars and learn the intricacies of tracks prior to racing.
N-WORD TRAUMA: HAMILTON REVEALS SICKENING RACIAL ABUSE
As Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes draw closer to extending the seven-time Formula 1 champion’s contract ahead of the 2023 season, the 38 year old has opened up about the racism he endured growing up in the UK and why he strives to be a beacon for change in the sport.
Hamilton, who in 2008 became the first black driver to become a Formula 1 world champion, revealed he was regularly subject to “n-word” slurs and even had bananas thrown at him by school peers.
As the first and still the only black driver to race in Formula 1, Hamilton has long been an advocate for diversity in the sport and in recent years established The Hamilton Commission, which aims to improve inclusion in motor racing.
He is unquestionably the face of Formula 1, boasting three-times as many social media followers as his nearest rival, and he has used that platform extensively to push back against racist ideologies in the sport and world at-large.
And the Mercedes star this week revealed the extent to which he was targeted by racist abuse as a child while growing up in Stevenage, about 40km north of London.
“For me, school was the most traumatising and most difficult part of my life,” Hamilton revealed to the On Purpose podcast.
“I was already being bullied at the age of six. At that particular school (in Stevenage) I was one of three kids of colour and just bigger, stronger, bullying kids were throwing me around a lot of the time.
“The constant jabs, the things that are either thrown at you, like bananas, or people that would use the n-word just so relaxed. People calling you half-caste and not knowing where you fit in – that for me was difficult.”
“In my school there were six or even black kids out of 1200 kids and three of us were put outside the headmaster’s office all the time. The headmaster just had it out for us – and particularly me,” he added.
“I felt the system was up against me and I was swimming against the tide. There were a lot of things I suppressed.
“I didn’t feel I could go home and tell my parents that these kids kept calling me the n-word, or I got bullied or beaten up at school today, I didn’t want my dad to think I was not strong.”
A 2007 BBC documentary, titled Lewis Hamilton: Billion Dollar Man, included a 1997 interview of a young Hamilton where he revealed he was regularly the victim of racist remarks while competing in go-karting.
“In the past years, I’ve had racist names being called to me,” a young Hamilton said.
“The first time it happened I felt really upset, I told my mum and dad, and I felt like I needed to get revenge on them. But lately, if anybody had said anything to me I just ignore them and get them back on the track.”
On the track Hamilton has been rivalled by only the legendary Schumacher. In 2020, Hamilton equalled Schumacher’s mark of seven Formula 1 world drivers’ championships, though the Britton holds the record for most race wins with 103.
Rumours swirled last season that Hamilton would consider retiring from Formula 1 once his current contract with Mercedes concluded at the end of the 2023 season.
However Hamilton declared he wanted to continue driving to at least the end of 2025 and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff this month said it was only a matter of time before the two parties extended their relationship.
“It’s just a matter of him physically being back in Europe, sticking our heads together, wrestling a bit, and then leaving the room with white smoke after a few hours.”
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Originally published as Formula One news: F1 champion Max Verstappen adds racing simulator to $22m private jet
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