Max Verstappen surpassed his own expectations when he completed his Silverstone karting challenge in blistering time against 100 competitors.
On Wednesday Red Bull ran the ‘Max vs 100’ event, which pitted the four-time world champion against 100 amateur karters consisting of content creators, motorsport personnel and athletes.
Verstappen started from the back and had to overtake all 100 within 30 laps on a purpose-built track at Silverstone, which included its karting venue and parts of the actual circuit like Brooklands.
But the Dutchman only needed 14 laps - 37 minutes - to complete the challenge, helped by a manic opening tour where he eliminated 64 rivals and 84 by lap five.
“When I was walking to the grid and saw where I had to start, I was like, ‘oof, that’s very far back’,” said an upbeat Verstappen.
“But after my first lap I was like, ‘ah, I think we’re alright, I think we’re good’. It was mainly just depending on the first two laps. If I clear the first two laps well, then, yeah, what can it be, 15 or 20 laps?
“But the first lap went a bit better than expected, so that helps a lot.”
It was evident at lights out how superior the reaction speed of an F1 star is compared to a ‘regular’ driver, taking a dozen off the line before weaving through the madness into Turn 1.
“You just act on instinct whatever happens,” he added. “When the lights go out, you kind of just see where the gaps are and then you also need to trust the people around you that they don’t do anything crazy.
“To be honest, they didn’t. They were very excited with each other, but they were actually quite nice to me. So they didn’t need to crash into me or whatever.
“But you just act really quickly when you see everything unfold in front of you.”
Verstappen has completed many of these challenges Red Bull has now presented to him ever since his debut with the squad in 2016, whether it’s test GTs or even go caravan racing with former team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
The Austrian brand is known for its outlandish events and the 28-year-old even teased further challenges, “I said before, I was like, ‘maybe 200’” amateurs to race against.
He subsequently added: “With Red Bull, they always come up with some crazy, fun things - it suits me.
“I can really be myself. The way it was organised today, I know that it requires a lot of effort to be able to do something like this and inviting so many people over, but it’s a lot of fun to be a part of that.
“Sometimes I get reminded of what I actually did in the past and I’m like, ‘oh my god, did I really do that?’. It’s fun and it’s definitely one of the best one out there.
“How many times do you have the opportunity to create something like this? Racing against a hundred other people. I think it’s very cool, only Red Bull can do something like this.”
