Original subtitles

Once you have achieved everything that you wanted to achieve in Formula 1.

That is four in a row, Max.

Four in a row, congratulations.

You have a bit more freedom to look into other things.

It's a passion of mine that I really want to succeed in.

There's a risk, but I believed in it.

I had never driven a car with a roof before.

Put a new bumper on and there we go again.

Yeah, that one worked.

Thank you.

Get a pass.

The season started with a lot

of question marks if it was going to be good.

I knew that the basic problems in the car that we had from the year before

still there.

I think very quickly we understood that it was not great, let's say like that.

So when I try to delay my shift to something great first and then do the

shift, I can just feel like... The

cart was not where we wanted it to

be.

And of course, something that you don't want to see naturally.

You want to be out there fighting for the championship.

Mark, you've been in the car for a day. Tomorrow will be a whole day, but we're

all very curious.

The RB21, how does it feel?

But then we definitely had a few tough weekends, made some mistakes as well.

Yeah, that was a bit painful at the time.

But I had no time to be upset or disappointed about what was happening in

Formula 1.

I was busy with other passion projects.

I know that, of course, your driving career yourself is not forever, right?

couple of years ago, it started to be a little bit of an idea to be a team

owner, you know, to try and create your own GT team.

Once you have achieved everything that you wanted to achieve in Formula 1, you

also have a bit more freedom to look into other things.

And I'm passionate about racing. I like to drive all different kinds of cars.

It first started in the virtual world.

It's my hobby, so I enjoy driving there.

At the same time, by slowly kick -starting stuff, really, into the real

world, we decided to create Vistapa .com Racing.

Of course, I talked to Red Bull about it and my ideas and plans, and I think

they were very open in that because at the end of the day, you want a happy

driver, not a frustrated driver, and those things keep me happy.

At the moment I don't have the time also and I cannot commit to fully building

the GT team by myself in a dedicated place. So that's why we opted to run it

through an existing racing team and actually two different teams. So with

Frey, yeah, it's a racing family so it's really, really cool to work with them.

And then the second team with two Cs, known for a very long time, they have

built a very strong platform as a team.

And that's why I think it's also a very exciting project to do that together, to

go internationally in GT World Challenge and see how competitive we can be.

It's a passion of mine that I really want to try and succeed in.

And then, of course, it was important to get Chris into the car.

and up and running.

I was studying a motorsport degree, so I built my sim career alongside my study.

I would say I probably prioritized it more than any of the studying I did, to

honest. I think that would even be an understatement.

In 2020, about a year into my sim journey, I could see Max's name in the

but I was not at the level to race against him. But by the end of that

was sat there competing against him, the best in the world.

When the first time I realised that Chris had come into his orbit was

him race online, and, you know, there was the name, and Verstappen, and so I

stood up, watched the song, pretending to be Max, and Chris goes, no, no, I'm

talking to him.

He could be close enough for a double move. I think it's the right line -up.

Verstappen .com Team Rex line.

Oh, that's a lot of cars!

We met online, yeah. I mean, I met him racing online in a different sim team,

and eventually then, of course, we signed him to our team, and that's how

started. Look at that RB19 face.

Yeah, you should have it.

Chris is a very good racing driver in the sim racing world, and became one of

our lead drivers in terms of how he was taking care of the tasks of the team,

setting up the car, race craft in the car.

just super all around, you know, it doesn't matter what kind of car you give

him, he can drive anything.

Of course, sim racing and the real racing world is two separate things, but

have the possibility, of course, to transition from sim racing into the real

if you show all the things that I like to see.

I spoke to Chris about my idea of setting up a team or a car for him.

So he knew that that opportunity was coming.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you have to see if they're comfortable or not. I can't be picky.

The team probably was a bit more nervous. Oh, it's him driving the car.

going to crash the car.

The idea was obviously presented to us, and we managed the situation depending

on the level of the person driving it. So I didn't really have any preconceived

ideas, but it's like, right, this is what we're going to do, and what do we

to do to prepare for it?

And go to Mugello really with an open mind, I would say, not knowing what the

driver knows or he doesn't know.

In truth, he's got the best coach with Max, so if Max believes that... that's

what he wants to do, then let's work with it and see where we are.

I remember walking in, watching the car, you know, being run up, being warmed

up. It's a super rainy morning.

The track was basically flooded.

I had never driven a car with a roof before. At that point, I didn't even

my road licence.

You know, I was very nervous. I remember that morning.

I didn't think my stomach liked it so much.

Max was kind of the opposite.

You know, for him it was his break.

So his mental space was a bit different.

Well,

yeah, I had a few weeks off at that point. It was actually perfect.

so we celebrated a bit my birthday one too many sparkling waters so i

woke up with uh yeah not enough sleep of

course i knew that it was going to

be the first day for chris so he was probably quite nervous i think i was

probably probably the opposite of nervous but it was also the first time

to drive with the with Jester Martin, so it was quite a challenge the first time

out.

It's always difficult to say what to expect. I don't really expect anything.

just go and sit down and then feel it.

I was wet also. I was like, all right, let's just make sure that everything is

in order. I don't need to be at my very best, but at least that the car is a

little bit in order.

into the gravel.

I just braked, went into the one, four -wheel drift, literally four -wheel

drift, just slid into the gravel.

It is expensive, yeah.

I always say, first we win, then we look at the money.

But at the end of the day, if you do well, I mean, that's also how it works

your career.

If you do well,

That's the talking and people will also come to you instead of trying to create

a massive story or a beautiful story, but You're driving in the back as a

What are you gonna sell? You know, so That's why I always focus first on

performance I'll be part is a bit expensive, but we deal with it Yeah

So Chris, we're just gonna I'm not around if I can call it that

Just have a feel. Just make sure.

It was a lot of nuts because I'd driven so many

different GT cars in the team, but I had no idea what to expect with a roof over

my head and 1 ,400 kilos underneath me.

I knew it was going to be very different.

My dad was always into cars, got the inspiration from him, you know, he would

just watch F1 on the TV.

Where my passion started was following his enthusiasm in the sport, just

anything I could. You know, I remember actually from before I could even reach

the pedals, I would just ask to take my parents' car on the driveway, even just

drive it a few metres forwards and backwards.

But then once it started in a real go -kart when I was seven or eight.

Once we started doing national level, it was called Super One at the time. That

was already actually at a very young age, so I think nine years old.

We kind of went all the way with go -karting. I did a lot. I was living

other weekend in a go -kart for seven years of my life, pretty much.

I look back on it and I think where I went wrong rather than the actual

successes I did.

I won a European title in 2016 and...

I was second in the world in 2017, and I always just kind of pictured that it

would go further, but the reality of the situation was following the natural

ladder, you know, you come to a Formula 4 car or, you know, you go to a GT4 car

or something along those lines, the first step is already, you know, 150

250 ,000 euros to make that step, so it's not realistic for...

The vast majority of people know.

Yeah, it was very difficult to know what the right way forward should be because

to go on the single -seater ladder is just prohibitively expensive.

I simply don't have the means to have accomplished that.

bought the thing just in the hope that it may lead somewhere, so that it would

allow him to prepare should ever an opportunity arise.

What I didn't expect or predict was what's happened since.

You know, obviously that's been an extraordinary journey.

Yeah, that turns out to have been one of my best ever decisions, I think.

I had no really experience in knowing how to prepare.

I did what I thought was right, stepped a bit up on my fitness so that that

would be less of a problem in the car. And, you know, I tried a few different

things in the theme that would probably correlate a bit more to the real car.

You know, there was different tools that I used, a different simulator,

different cars and versions of the track to make everything as accurate as I

could.

You shouldn't make people feel nervous about crashing a car or damage.

We'll see, right? If he does, he does. I mean, we'll put a new bumper on and

there we go again.

Let's go out and have fun.

I trust in him.

Yeah, you feel G -forces, which you don't feel in the simulator.

If you crash, it can hurt.

The physical and mental aspect of being on a real track, you know, it's a real

car. Everything is direct, you know, you have the direct input into the seat,

the pedals.

It's strange.

It feels obvious to say, but...

It is things like the extra senses you have, the smell of everything that's

going on, the sound, or even just, you know, you take a big curb strike and the

vertical G -forces, you know, the car will fly up and then down again.

There's some elements and some variables that are completely new that I'm not

used to controlling.

But then you also have...

These moments where I'm in the car, I'm like, ah, that's exactly how it's

happened in the sim for the last years of my life.

It takes some time to get that confidence.

To be honest, after a handful of laps, it did feel quite natural.

To be honest, he was good straight away as a baseline.

He had a good understanding for the car and the feeling in the car in tricky

conditions. And then throughout the day, just continued to develop on what he

felt and obviously comparing to Max.

At the beginning I had no confidence.

What's your poker?

Yeah. It'll be fun anyway.

Yeah, if you come back tomorrow morning, you look at the data there, you look at

the onboard, the difference, then you jump in the car again in five laps.

He said he never driven a DC Power 4.

Good job.

He's done good job.

In tricky conditions on a tricky track.

But what's the goal? Do you want him full -time in the car?

No, no, full -time car.

But we need to find, of course, the right replacement in the sim racing

which is not easy. It's important that he stays involved because he is a

And still, whenever he can, do races, when the schedule allows to do races.

But it, of course, also will depend on how much he is racing in real life.

It's a big step, but I trust him. And I said, you need to set the bar high.

That's British engineering for you.

It's a very niche route to take, of course.

Thousands of people dream of the same route, you know, taking the same route

into becoming a professional in the real car.

I was going to say, it's not luck, but, you know, I've been in the right place

at the right time and I've always performed when it mattered and that's

got me the opportunity.

But it's not only performance.

It was never only performance.

I mean, you never know, right, if it's going to work out. But I do have to

believe that the biggest percentage was with Chris to make it work.

And I would say after the first test, I knew already that it was going to be all

right. Of course, I knew that he would make mistakes, naturally.

But in terms of pace, I think it will be fine.

Everyone calls it the green hell.

To hit the perfect lap around the north, it's almost impossible.

Franz Herrmann is going to try today.

Do you know Franz Herrmann? Next week we have the 24 hours of Spa.

I knew that that was the most important race of the year and I wanted to make

sure that we were competitive.

It's important to know the car because then they can't bullshit me on things.

There they are. How's it going guys?

I probably ask for a lot, but at the end of the day, we're all there to win,

right?