Around Christmas last year, Luke Smalla 35-year-old Englishman, sat in front of his computer to play iRacing, his favorite racing simulation platform, and was preparing for another normal race, when a striking username joined his open room, ‘Jos Verstappen’ . His jaw dropped, «I was… very excited.»
Within the iRacing community, that username is known as one of the accounts [en plural] that belong to Max Verstappen. Yes, the Dutchman who has already won three Formula 1 world titles, because the platform accounts are connected to credit cards, and there are no usernames, only real names.Max Verstappen in eSports and simracing:
His main account, ‘Max Verstappen’, is reserved for high-level racing in order to maintain his rank, while the alternative is named after his father. There are rumors that he has a third one with his full name, ‘Max-Emilian Verstappen’and it is common for professional eSports drivers to have two users, because iRacing separates the classifications for oval tracks and normal tracks, and some, like the Dutchman, want to protect their account more strongly.
«To be honest, [competir contra profesionales] It’s not uncommon in iRacing,» added Luke Small. «A lot of pros use it, and you can take them down quite regularly, which is nice.»
However, Verstappen is Verstappen. The three-time Formula 1 champion apparently spends more time in the simulator for Red Bull than any of his teammates.so much so that he has an extra job as one of the best eSports drivers in the world. He has been part of the Team Redline team since 2015 and competes with the group in some of the most prestigious competitions.
This season, his obsession sometimes clashed with his day job. In May he performed an incredible feat, since he won the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in real life and, at the same time, conquered the virtual 24 Hours of Nurburgring, all thanks to a simulator installed where he stayed to sleep, in which He played between his duties at the Great Circus. Then, in July, he won the virtual 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, where he competed until three in the morning on the Sunday before the Hungarian Grand Prix.
His performance in real life, with a fifth place after qualifying third and spending the race complaining on the radio to his team, led Red Bull to ask him not to compete in simulation tests so late during the Formula 1 weekends. .Red Bull warns Max Verstappen:
To Luke Small, The opportunity to face Max Verstappen was a much more fun and less heavy experience: «I say I ‘ran’ against him. I saw him at the starting line, and that was the last time I saw him.»
The Dutchman beat the Briton by 22 seconds while in a Hyundai Elantra TCR on the Nordschleife. According to the English player, the reigning world champion was not chatting in the room, although he is known to interact with viewers on his Twitch streams from time to time.
Reddit is full of Max Verstappen sightingswith iRacers often sharing stories of being overtaken by the Dutch Phenom or, on rare occasions, catching a lucky slipstream and briefly passing it. At 31 years old, Corey Wisefaced him twice on iRacing after joining a room that team Redline announced on their stream.
“Immediately the idea of competing crossed my mind,” he said. “It kind of became more about being in that room than the race itself.”
Max Verstappen raced the Porsche GT3s at Spa-Francorchamps, in reverse order on the grid, and made his way from last to first place: «I can tell you with confidence that Max Verstappen overtook me.»
For true professional simracing drivers who understand all the nuances of the virtual sport, the Dutchman’s achievements are as impressive as what he has done in a Red Bullas he assured Jaden Conwrightwho competes in real life and shares rooms with him from time to time: «The amount of preparation [para las carreras de simulación] «It’s crazy»
«During the virtual Nurburgring 24 Hours, the top teams basically did qualifying laps, every lap, for nine hours straight,» he explained. «If you lose two seconds somewhere, you’ll never get it back, that’s the perfection of high-level sim pilots.»
What sets Max Verstappen apart is his imperturbabilitywho never cracks under pressure when others are behind him. Furthermore, just as he demonstrated in real life, the Dutchman pays amazing attention to detail. There are small nuances that, like the best drivers, he exploits, such as turning off the pit limiter and exceeding the limits by a couple of kilometers per hour, which normally does not entail penalties, but he is also able to transfer his talent in the al strange world of simracing.
Perhaps it is not surprising that in the virtual world, Max Verstappen remains as aggressive as he is on real asphalt, but in iRacing, wheel-to-wheel overtaking must be done with a smarter touchsince, as Jaden Conwright pointed out, cars often «stick» and can crash a little easier.
«It’s not exactly the same as real life, which is why it’s so crazy what Max can do.» [Verstappen]», he stated, in addition to telling an anecdote that illustrated the dominance he can have.
The flying Dutchman took part in a «setup» simulation race in which all drivers used the same car, but had eight hours of practice time to figure out the best setup: «My partner was first by a tenth or two, then Max comes out of nowhere and beats him by a tenth. Where did he get all that time? Did Max change the settings of the differentials and the inclination of the brakes in each corner during the qualifying laps to optimize the track, he realized. all that and he optimized, while my partner said he was crazy.
According to Ryan Barneveldanother Dutch professional simulation driver whose team came second in the virtual Nurburgring 24 Hours behind Redline, Max Verstappen’s ability to adapt is what makes him so great, in any competition; «The speed at which he can adapt to something new is incredible.»
«Every week, or even every day, you can drive a different car and track in the simulator, so you have to know what you are doing and how to extract speed from it, and in real Formula 1, if there is a new circuit, He gets in the car and is a second faster than any other driver during the first 50 minutes,» he said. «That’s their ability to adapt.»
Max Verstappen’s eSports exploits had two major impacts. Firstly, it brought a wave of attention to the niche, which professionals like Ray Barneveld appreciate, but it also boosted the Dutchman’s own credibility as he appears to eat, sleep and breathe racing, with rumors suggesting he even had a simulation platform in your private plane.
Perhaps the greatest testament to Max Verstappen’s talent? His skill in sim racing made some detractors recoil.
The editor of Motor1, Chris Rosalesfaced the Dutchman in an open room, in which he broke his «face», as he said with a laugh: «In simracing, at the end of the day you have the same track, the same conditions, the same cars, and you have to maximize «What you have. The fact that even with all the conditions being equal, not in a Red Bull, not in the best team, he can continue to distance himself, I can’t help but respect what he is doing there.»
