Although Red Bull aero God Adrian Newey is often perceived as the individual who has helped the team become so dominant in recent times, three-time F1 champion Max Verstappen believes that a sim racer deserves a part of the credit as well. The Dutchman has credited Rudy van Buren, who is one of Red Bull’s official simulator test and development drivers.
Speaking of the same, Verstappen said (as quoted by Junaid), “Of course, I have a lot of contact with Rudy. He tells me what he has tried in the simulator and then we talk about it. We discuss what he has learned or he says ‘maybe we should do this or we should see if that aspect still can improve‘”.
According to Verstappen, Red Bull Racing had immediately found a nice balance with the RB20, for which he praises Rudy van Buren and the simulator work. Technical director Pierre Waché is also complimentary. https://t.co/xvx3hgm8J8
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) February 25, 2024
The 26-year-old believes it is crazy to see how much of an influence sim racers like Van Buren have in Red Bull getting the setup of the car right. Similarly to Verstappen, Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache also credited the sim racers for their efforts.
The French engineer believes that the Milton Keynes-based outfit had a smooth pre-season testing over the past week because of the efforts the sim racers put in during the winter break. Since Verstappen himself is an avid sim racer, he perhaps would have had a keen interest in watching the work the likes of Van Buren would have put on the simulator.
Max Verstappen’s life revolves around racing
In several interviews, Max Verstappen has explained how his interest in racing is so strong that even when he is not driving for Red Bull during F1 race weekends, he is still taking part in races on his simulator. The 26-year-old often spends time on sim racing with his friends from Team Redline.
Several of the world’s top sim racers, including Verstappen, compete for Team Redline. The most recent sim racing competition that they took part in was the iRacing event of the 24 Hours of Daytona. Verstappen went on win this event with two of his Team Redline mates: Diogo Pinto and Sebastian Job.
With Verstappen already having won a competition this season, he is surely looking to carry forward this momentum into the actual F1 season. The first race of this year’s campaign will take place in Bahrain from February 29 to March 2.
