Max Verstappen adds racing sim to private jet

Formula 1 World Champion takes ‘flying lap’ a bit too literal

Marco Wutz | Jan 26, 2023

Max Verstappen adds racing sim to private jet /

Max Verstappen, two-time Formula 1 World Champion, truly is the embodiment of a hardcore gamer who just also happens to be super rich.

The Dutchman is said to casually open FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) packs shortly before racing sessions and is known for his love of sim racing – because driving the fastest race cars on the planet on actual tracks is not enough. He’s also familiar with officially licensed F1 games such as F1 Manager 2022, which he criticized for giving his lead engineer too low a rating.

Recently, Verstappen participated in the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans event and dished out harsh criticism against the organizers for various problems with the race, calling it a “clown show” among other things. He’s as serious about his hobby as he is about actual racing. While he reportedly uninstalled the game used during this event, he’s not given up on sim racing in general – far from it, in fact.

According to Helmut Marko, one of the leading figures at Verstappen’s F1 team Red Bull Racing, the reigning champion actually installed a new simulator on his private jet after the disappointing event. Speaking to German TV channel SPORT1, Marko explained that “Verstappen needs this distraction.”

“In any case”, the Austrian former F1 driver continued, “it hasn’t hurt him so far when you look at his two world championships.” True enough.

Verstappen bought the Dassault Falcon 900EX from British businessman Richard Branson in 2020. Able to reach top speeds of 900 km per hour (around 560 mph), Verstappen can truly claim to be the fastest gamer in the world when he uses his on-board simulator.

Published Jan 26, 2023

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg