Simracing is also booming among professional racing drivers – A 35-year-old Brit was allowed to drive against Max Verstappen
It’s Christmas 2023 when Briton Luke Small starts iRacing to drive a virtual race on a public server. Suddenly the name Jos Verstappen appears, the father of the Formula 1 world champion, but behind him is Max Verstappen. The 35-year-old says: “I was completely blown away!”
In iRacing, the drivers cannot hide behind pseudonyms, as the names are taken over when paying with the credit card. Jos Verstappen, for example, has made his card available to enable his son to have a second account: Under the name Max Verstappen, the Red Bull driver virtually drives the big races.
Under the name of his father
Verstappen needs the second account to be able to drive in other lobbies, as iRacing has an internal rating system that ranks the drivers. So Verstappen can simply have fun with one account, while he has to defend his good position with the other. “It’s not unusual to race against professionals on iRacing,” says Small. “A lot of pros use it and you can meet them regularly, which is very cool.”
Verstappen, however, drives for the simracing team Redline, which has been competing in the sims since 2015. The Dutchman is also always active in the virtual world on Formula 1 race weekends. This has already caused trouble, but he also won the Formula 1 race at Imola in reality in the virtual 24h at the Nürburgring on a race weekend in May.
But at the 24 Hours of Spa in July, he drove until three o’clock in the morning, even though he was due to fight for important points for Red Bull the next day. He only finished fifth in the Formula 1 race and third in qualifying. As a result, Red Bull put a stop to the top driver’s sim racing activities during the Formula 1 weekends. He is no longer allowed to drive at least into the night
Many sim racers are happy about Verstappen
“I drove against him,” says Small happily. “But I only saw him on the start-finish line, then he was gone.” Verstappen took 22 seconds off Small in his virtual Hyundai TCR on the Nordschleife. Small reports that the star remained calm in the chat. But in his live broadcasts, Verstappen repeatedly answers his fans’ questions
There are always users on Reddit who talk about their experiences racing against Verstappen on iRacing. A 31-year-old from the USA has already raced against the Dutchman twice on the Redline servers. His name is Corey Wise and he says: “I didn’t care about the actual race, I wanted to be in the lobby more.”
In the Porsche race at Spa-Francorchamps, Verstappen drove from last to first place due to the reversed starting order. “I can say that I was overtaken by Max Verstappen,” laughs Wise. Verstappen is a hero in the sim racing world because of his success there, but the racing drivers also think highly of him. “The preparation is crazy,” says Jaden Conwright, who drives in both the real and virtual worlds. He has also raced against Verstappen on the computer
Trouble with Red Bull
“In the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, the team sets qualifying times practically every lap for nine hours,” he explains. “If you lose two seconds, you’ll never get them back. There is so much perfection, these people are at a very high level in simracing.” According to Conwright, Verstappen can handle pressure perfectly and therefore beat anyone in the virtual world.
Verstappen can also do the set-up work in the virtual world, where the adjustment options on the car are reproduced realistically. Verstappen had eight hours of practice to find the best set-up for a race and was a tenth faster than the competition. “It was crazy that he managed that,” recalls Conwright.
Ryan Barneveld is a Dutch simracer who is considered a professional in the scene. At the Nürburgring, he finished second behind Team Redline. “He can get used to new things so quickly,” he says of Verstappen. “You can drive a new car or a new track every week in the simulation, so you have to know how to get the most out of it.” The Dutchman can do just that.
At the same time, Verstappen has a major influence on this niche: he has drawn a lot of attention to simracing and has also proven himself there. Sim racing is also a good platform to get into racing and build something up without having to spend the budget on real motorsport. The barrier to entry is lowered and that’s what makes the sport so interesting, even if it takes place behind the computer.
