“Max knows the car through and through”– Max Verstappen’s simulator teammate claims Red Bull star thinks like an engineer

Max Verstappen’s simulator teammate Atze Kerkhof thinks the Dutchman thinks like an engineer, with whom he has a formidable partnership.

Max Verstappen is a phenomenal race driver. However, his passion for virtual racing doesn’t hold him back in showing exemplary skills in that area too.

The 24-year-old F1 driver is currently competing in the 24-hours Le Mans virtual racing. The Dutch race driver was leading the charts during the publishing of this article. Thus, it makes our assessment of his virtual racing accurate.

Verstappen also has a competent partner in Atze Kerkhof, and both form a formidable pair in the sim racing. While describing his work with Verstappen, Kerkhof feels that Verstappen works thinks like an engineer, pointing out his technical prowess.

“I did a lot of the basic work on the setup,” he explained to RacingNews365. “We do that together with the team, but that was on my plate as far as the drivers are concerned. Max steps in later and, as always, is immediately fast. That’s when we dot the I’s and cross the T’s together.”

“Max is someone who, as our engineers, knows the car through and through,” he said. “He thinks like an engineer, and he drives like a World Champion. That is the ideal combination, and as such, he can also provide feedback very quickly.

“He always finds a few tenths in the setup, and that’s really nice to have because those are probably exactly the few tenths you need to make the gap, so we’re delighted to have a guy like that in the team.

“He’s a great ambassador for us, but also for sim racing that he openly talks about a lot.”

Max Verstappen’s simulator teammate busy in his own F1 duties in 2022

Kerkhof, after this event, will be taking an off from virtual racing, as he will be engaged with his F1 duties. For the 2022 season, he is the part of Alfa Romeo team as a drivers’ performance consultant. Along with that, he has his own projects to take care of.

“This will be my last race for the time being,” he said. “Next year I will be way too busy with other things. I will be present at all 23 Formula 1 Grands Prix as Alfa Romeo Driver Performance Consultant.”

“I will remain busy as Team Redline Team Manager, and I still run my own company Adrenaline Control. In addition, I’m still fast now, but I’m also getting a year older, and I just noticed that if I can’t prepare well for such a race, if I can’t test enough, I’m really a lot slower.

Also read: Max Verstappen misses out on pole by just 0.002 seconds at the 24 hours Le Mans Virtual Race