Watch: The Only Machine That Could Keep Up With Max Verstappen's RB20 At Silverstone

The machine could keep up with the RB20 without undergoing mid-season upgrades.

If there's anything out there to keep up with Max Verstappen in Red Bull's latest title contender, the RB20, it is the world's fastest-camera drone, built in collaboration with Red Bull and Dutch Drone Gods (DDG). However, would the fastest drone be fast enough to beat the 2024 season's most dreaded machine?

Key Takeaways:

• Red Bull collaborates with Dutch Drone Gods to build the world's fastest camera drone to challenge Max Verstappen's RB20, the F1 car for the 2024 season.
• Max Verstappen's F1 car reaches speeds of 217 mph, surpassing the average drone speed of 45 mph and FAA's legal limit of 100 mph.
• The drone, resembling a rocket, successfully competes against F1 cars in various tests, showcasing its incredible speed and maneuvering skills, even impressing the three-time F1 champion.

Max Verstappen, a three-time F1 World Championship title holder, achieves speeds of around 217 mph (350 kph) during races. This far exceeds the average drone speed of 45 mph (75 kph) and the legal limit set by the FAA at around 100 mph (161 kph).

Consequently, the drone team realized that it needed to revamp its flying contender to chase or beat the RB20. With assistance from Red Bull Advanced Technologies, Ralph Hogenbirk, also known as Shaggy, collaborated to create the fastest camera drone ever built that looks more like a rocket than a drone.

However, to assess the drone's capabilities, the team performed 'practice races' under various scenarios, the first one being a straight-line drag race between drone prototype number 2 and former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard in his RB1 F1 car. The result? The drone beat the F1 car by quite a margin. 

For the second test, prototype number 2 raced against Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson around the 5.8-kilometer Silverstone Circuit. However, the team faced challenges in between as the drone lost signal and had to be brought back home. In a subsequent attempt, the drone managed to keep up with Lawson and captured some extraordinary perspectives. 

With the rocket-lookalike drone all ready to face the ultimate car with Verstappen in it, the final finished drone, called Drone 1, competed against the three-time champion in the new RB20 F1 car. Despite hoping for a dry lap, both the car and the drone had to contend with rain at Silverstone. 

Drone 1 got pretty close to the car in several instances, making it seem like it would soon execute an overtake. Regardless of the result, the visuals captured of a Formula 1 car tearing down a wet Grand Prix track in 4K were beyond real. The suspense built as everyone awaited the moment the racing car and camera drone crossed the finish line. Eventually, Max won this unique race, but here's what he said after watching footage recorded by Drone 1:

"I never thought to see a drone going that quick.

"It gives a different perspective to watching Formula 1."

The astonishing speed of the drone and the required maneuvering skills, ensuring it avoids collisions with Silverstone's numerous bridges, are truly remarkable. It's evident that even the three-time F1 champion was impressed.