Ahead of his kart race against 100 drivers at Silverstone, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen appears relaxed and explains that he hasn’t prepared for it so far
On 16 September, Max Verstappen will compete against 100 rivals in a kart race organised by Red Bull. It’s an event for which the streaming service Disney+ has already secured the broadcasting rights. However, the four-time world champion isn’t particularly nervous ahead of this unusual challenge.
As he put it ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, he’ll simply “turn up at Silverstone and [s]get on with it”. The 71-time Grand Prix winner needn’t worry about competition from the Formula 1 paddock, though.
After all, on the newly built karting circuit, Verstappen won’t be competing against the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, Kimi Antonelli and co., but against content creators, influencers, sportspeople and racing drivers of varying degrees of fame.
With just a few days to go before the event, almost all the participants have been officially announced. But no matter exactly who is waiting for the four-time world champion at Silverstone, Verstappen remains relaxed and emphasises that he hasn’t prepared for the race so far.
“No, I haven’t done anything yet,” he says. “To be honest, I’ll just turn up and have some fun. Let’s see how it goes. But yes, there are quite a lot of people.”
It is not just the sheer number of competitors that is likely to pose a challenge for Verstappen. After all, the Red Bull driver has to start the race from last place. Verstappen has a total of 30 laps to work his way to the front of the field.
Nevertheless, Williams driver Carlos Sainz emphasises: “I took part in a kart race against my team yesterday. I started in twentieth place because it was a reverse-grid race. And within five laps, I was in P1.”
“So, by my reckoning, it looks like this: if [100 people] are on the grid, then Max should take the lead within 20 laps. 15 to 20 laps, who knows. It depends on how much overtaking there is. But he’ll win it easily.”
Charles Leclerc, on the other hand, is concerned that some of the participants could pose a problem for Verstappen for an entirely different reason: “My only advice would be not to crash into Max. He’s still got a season to finish.”
As for Verstappen himself, however, he advises him “to be careful, because I don’t know how many professional racing drivers will be there. But 100 drivers on one track is quite a lot. I think it’s bound to be fun.‘
’But if they’re up against one of the best drivers in the world,‘ as Leclerc emphasises, ’they’ll certainly have their work cut out for them.”
