Max Verstappen Stuns DTM Engineer With “Unexpected” Performance

Max Verstappen never hid the fact that he wanted to take part in variousCred racing disciplines, once he retired from F1. His interests lay mainly in GT and endurance racing, and for this, he took to the track during the ongoing summer break. Thanks to a Viaplay program, Verstappen was at the Mugello circuit in Italy, where he tested a DTM car.

In this unofficial test, Verstappen’s performance was so good that it shocked his trackside engineer Graziano Michaelacci.

Verstappen drove Thierry Vermeulen’s Ferrari 296 DTM car, and Michaelacci said, “I usually know what to expect from certain drivers, but this was really unexpected. He improved his lap times in a way that doesn’t exist in real life.” 

“Even if you expect something like this from Verstappen, you’re still surprised,” he added. “It’s stories like that that you share later in the future. When you’re on the road with your friends in a van.”

DTM engineer Graziano Michelacci was shocked to witness Max Verstappen’s exceptional driving skills.

“He improved his lap times in a way that doesn’t exist in real life. Even if you expect something like this from Verstappen, you’re still surprised”#MAXVERSTAPPEN pic.twitter.com/Ue0zNgEEy8

— FirstSportz F1 (@FirstsportzF1) August 3, 2024

Verstappen supports Vermeulen’s career through his Verstappen.com venture and also plans on owning a GT3 team in the future. However, with there being no intention of driving in F1 when he’s very old, Verstappen could become a star in DTM himself. A lot of it could be down to the fact that he is an avid sim racer.

Is sim racing helping Verstappen diversify his racing talents?

Verstappen once revealed that he took part in sim-racing to get a taste of action away from his F1 duties. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t serious about what he was doing.

Verstappen takes part in competitive races and has won prestigious Titles like the Virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans. He stays up late at night, competing in events, even if he has to take part in an F1 race the next morning.

The Red Bull driver admits that it helps him stay sharp, which allows him to have better results on the track. Plus, the sim races he takes part in are mostly in the GT category, which could be the reason behind his strong performance in Mugello recently.