Max Verstappen, one of the most successful Formula One drivers ever, has an understandably impressive car collection but a daily driver you might not expect.
Zane Dobie
15:2323 April 2024
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Max Verstappen is a Formula One driver for the Red Bull Racing team. At just 26, he's one of the most successful Formula One drivers to ever grace the circuit.
Verstappen, the Dutch national and son to Formula One driver Jos Verstappen, is a three-time world champion and has claimed a plethora of records, including the most wins in a season, the highest percentage of wins in a season, theyoungest person to ever compete in a Formula One race, and the most consecutive wins ever.
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Having raced in Formula One since 2014 and starting his firstfullseason in 2015, Verstappen was on a track with the fastest cars in the world before he even had his driver's licence.
Dutch law means that Verstappen had to wait until he was 18 before he could drive, but by this stage he was already reaching speeds of over 350km/h on the circuit.
So, now that the young superstar is in his mid-20s, what is he driving on a daily basis?Well, as it turns out, he doesn't appear to have a set daily driver and rotates through his impressive collection.
Renault Clio RS
In an interview with the official Formula One YouTube channel, Verstappen revealed that his first car was a Renault Clio RS, which you can also see in the photo he posted to his Twitter on his 18th birthday after passing his driver's test.
"I had a Clio RS at home, but I didn't have my driver's licence yet, so it was just standing around a bit," Verstappen said.
The bright yellow Clio RS, with its turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine and 147kW, was a surprisingly conservative choice for a Formula One driver.
You can also see by the flappy paddle shifters on the steering wheel that, as with all Clio RS hot hatchbacks of the generation Verstappen drove, the F1 driver's car was an automatic.
Honda NSX
Of course, under Honda's long-running program to supply Red Bull Racing with the engines for its Formula One cars, Honda alsosuppliedthe drivers with road cars.
What other choice would the three-time world champion make besides the fastest machine Honda offers, the NSX? In 2022, the Japanese car giant gifted him a Type S model that puts out 447kW from the 3.5-litre twin-turbo hybrid V6,a largeleap from his little Clio RS.
Since receiving the car as a gift, Verstappen has been spotted driving around in his mid-engined machine, even cutting some laps around Japan's Motegi circuit.
Aston Martin DBS Superleggera
Following the theme of receiving cars as gifts from his sponsors, Verstappen has been seen cutting around in an Aston Martin DBS Superleggera.
Aston Martin is one of the title sponsors for the Red Bull Racing team. In 2019, Verstappen swapped out his shiny new DB11 for a Vantage before landing on the extremely cool DBS Superleggera he has driven to and from Grand Prix events.
The DBS Superleggera sports a 5.2-litre twin-turbocharged V12 engine that puts down a whopping 533kW. However, it wasn't meant to be for the young driveras it went up for saleonMotorsport.comwith just 12,000 miles (19,000km) on the odometer in 2022.
Since then, Verstappen has been seen driving to race rounds in a plethora of different cars from the 2023/2024 Aston Martin, Honda and recently Ford catalogues as part of his brand deal.
Aston Martin Valkyrie
While it's not much of a daily driver for the Dutch superstar, Verstappen has been seen getting around in his $4.5 million Aston Martin Valkyrie on public roads.
The full carbon-fibre hypercar weighs just 1355kg and is powered by a naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12 that produces an eye-watering 865kW.
Verstappen's Valkyrie came to light in 2023 when a video was shared of the Formula One driver hitting over 120km/h while driving through a tunnel in France, which some have alleged has a 90km/h speed limit.
The video also shows Verstappen wearing large headphones – due to the sheer noise the car produces, each Aston Martin Valkyrie comes with helicopter-grade headphones. Without wearing them, you could be susceptible to hearing damage.
Still, 120km/h is relatively tame compared to the speeds Verstappen experiences in a Formula One car – and far below the Aston Martin Valkyrie's claimed 355km/h top speed.
His racing simulator
Despite plenty of photos showing Verstappen arriving at race meetings in the finest supercars money can buy, he isn't spotted frequently driving around on public roads. The one ride he seems to be in more than his Formula One car is his racing simulator at home.
Like any young racing fan, Max Verstappen spends hours playing the competitive game iRacing, where he is seen battling it out in everything from hatchbacks to NASCARs. It's not just training for him, as he enjoys circuit racing on the simulator outside of the Formula One cars included in the game.
In fact, Verstappen was caught playing iRacing at 4:00am before he was set to race in the Saudi Arabian GP this year.
"I just stayed a bit on European or even UK schedule, so I would go to bed at 4:00am and wake up late… The thing is, of course, also, I have my own sim team, so naturally I'm just catching up with them a bit. It's a bit of just unwinding as well," said Verstappen in a post-race conference.
The Formula One driver is also active in streaming his online races and seems to have plenty of fun with it, as do fellow F1 young guns Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc.
The exact cost of Verstappen's sim-racing set-up is unknown, but if we calculate the parts available to the public, it would already be in the tens of thousands of dollars.
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Zane Dobie
Zane Dobie comes from a background of motorcycle journalism, working for notable titles such as Australian Motorcycle News Magazine, Just Bikes and BikeReview. Despite his fresh age, Zane brings a lifetime of racing and hands-on experience. His passion now resides on four wheels as an avid car collector, restorer, drift car pilot and weekend go-kart racer.
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