Max Verstappen teases future role away from F1

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen teases future racing role away from F1

Red Bull star Max Verstappen has his sights set on a challenge outside of F1

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 29 July 2025 22:57

Four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen has teased future plans in the world of racing away from the pinnacle of motorsport.

Since making his F1 debut as the youngest driver in the sport's history at just 17 years old, the Dutchman has enjoyed a dominant career with all of his success earned as a member of the Red Bull family.

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Despite stating recently that in an ideal world he would only race for Red Bull for the rest of his career, there have been constant talks in the paddock this season about Mercedes' interest in the reigning champion.

He is a generational talent and is currently fighting to match Michael Schumacher's record of five consecutive drivers' title wins, but Red Bull's progress in the sport has been on a steady decline all year long.

Though a move to the Silver Arrows now looks unrealistic for 2026, Verstappen has touched on his future plans in the sport in an interview with The Athletic, even revealing what he hopes to achieve outside the championship.

"My dream is of having a sim driver move into the real world and making it a success story, and seeing him progress, and seeing him evolve into a better driver. And also, hopefully, in the long term, make him basically a professional driver. That he can make his living off it," the 27-year-old revealed.

Could Verstappen's wild sim racing dreams come true?

Verstappen's love of sim racing and esports has been well documented, famously landing in hot water during the 2024 season as a result of competing in virtual endurance races on the same weekend as F1 championship rounds.

But it appears his passion for the virtual sport extends beyond a personal one, with the star admitting his true aspiration outside of F1 is to take a sim racer and successfully assist with transitioning them to the world of professional racing.

"That is the goal, and that’s something that slowly we’re making ways in," Verstappen continued.

"I know it takes time, but I do want to find the talent that is able to transition to real life."

Max Verstappen harbours hopes of helping a sim driver become a success in the real racing world

The Dutchman has got a good head start when it comes to searching for promising talent, as he is already heavily involved with prominent sim racing outfit Team Redline.

Verstappen joined the squad in 2015 and has admitted in the past that at first, he mostly used sim racing as a way of connecting with the virtual team. Now however, his activities on the sim have lead to a dream of finding more opportunities for sim drivers to get out racing in the real world.

Many of the obstacles to the higher echelons of motorsport revolve around money, resource and location. Sim racing is arguably more accessible to racing hopefuls around the globe and with a deep understanding of the sport already, Verstappen could be the best chance of developing the pathway to real world racing.

The most famous instance of a similar project saw Jann Mardenborough get the chance to compete in his first real-life race as a result of winning the GT Academy competition in 2011, which earned him a professional racing contract with Nissan.

The Brit went on to drive at the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans and was even snapped up to drive for the Arden International team in GP3, an outfit run by none other than ex-Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner.

The move also saw Mardenborough gain access to Red Bull's driver development facilities, marking the first time a gamer had been given that opportunity, although he was not signed to their junior development programme.

Over a decade on since that first for Red Bull, Verstappen is hoping for is a successful pivot from sim racing into a long-term professional career on track.

F1 HEADLINES: Verstappen in tense exchange as ‘difficult’ Red Bull talks emerge

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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