Max Verstappen whips Dutch fans into a frenzy with epic hype video

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen whips Dutch fans into a frenzy with epic hype video

World champion flies the flag on eve of bid for a title hat-trick

Stuart Hodge

Thursday 2 March 2023 23:42 Updated: 09:54

Max Verstappen whipped his millions of Dutch fans into a frenzy on the eve of the 2023 F1 season by releasing an epic hype video on Thursday.

The two-time reigning world champion will start his bid for a hat-trick of world championship wins in Bahrain on Friday. He will start a hot favourite with the bookmakers to add to his spectacular victories in 2021 and 2022.

With excitement reaching fever pitch back home in the Netherlands, the 25-year-old posted a video to his 9.5million Instagram followers draped in the Dutch flag.

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Max Verstappen – the man who has it all

Verstappen, who was actually born in Belgium, has become one of the biggest sports stars back home since bursting onto the scene when winning the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

Since then he's become a global sensation with a model girlfriend (Kelly Piquet) and a home in the millionaire's playground of Monaco.

Max Verstappen with girlfriend Kelly Piquet

Thursday's video shows Verstappen standing silently draped in the Dutch flag while the Formula One theme tune - played by the Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines - blasts out.

Verstappen, coming off a dominant 2022 season in which he claimed a record 15 race wins, looked as peerless as ever in pre-season testing as the new Red Bull RB19 stood out as the apparent class of the 2023 field.

Now, in less than 24 hours, the time for talking will be over though and the man with the #1 on his car will need to prove it for real, all over again.

Free practice 1 gets under way in Bahrain at 1430 local time on Friday - 1130 in the UK or 1230 CET and 0630 Eastern Time in the United States.

GPFans will bring you all the very latest news, analysis and reaction from Sakhir as things get under way.