Max Verstappen, The current three-time Formula 1 world champion will start next weekend at the iRacing Nürburgring 24 with his simulation racing team, Redline. There’s just one little problem: F1 is there too racing in Imola this weekend. Verstappen assures everyone that it’s not a gigantic deal because he simulates racing on F1 weekends all the time.
Fighting a 24-hour race, even in a simulator, is not an basic task. The immediate concern is whether Verstappen he will be fully rested when he straps himself into his F1 car at the start. By his standards, the Red Bull Racing driver is in crisis. He finished second in the race, behind McLaren’s Lando Norris Miami Grand Prix, Previous round of F1. After Imola’s Friday practice session, he was also a quarter of a second off the pace. Motor sports I spoke to Verstappen about combining iRacing with F1:
“It’s a 24-hour race and I think there are four of us in the car. But of course I don’t have much time on Saturday evening and Sunday morning,” Verstappen explained. “[I have] two to four hours if I have to do it. It kind of depends on how it turns out over time.
“Of course, you need to go to bed on time and get enough sleep to start your Sunday well. You can’t decide for everyone what they will do on Saturday night. People can go out to dinner, do crazy things…
“I do it in my spare time and I think I’m professional enough to see for myself what’s okay and what’s not.”
Verstappen, who made his world championship debut at the age of 17, has not quite shaken off his prodigy image. Too many, he is still a child almost a decade later. Sim racing also conveys an image of being just a video game despite most professional drivers using it as a tool to learn a up-to-date track and keep their skills off the track.
Virtual version German endurance classic is one of the biggest iRacing events of the year, and it’s going to be even more special this year. This will be the first edition with rain, as iRacing implemented a up-to-date active weather system in March.
