Max Verstappen excited over NEW team-mate partnership

F1 champion Max Verstappen drove his first race with a new team-mate last week, possibly his first of many as he looks to expand his motorsport dominance.

Verstappen and Chris Lulham absolutely dominated in the former's Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie debut at the Nurburgring Nordschleife, the first GT3 event of his career.

The Dutchman drove the first two hours of the four-hour race, pulling out a lead of a minute over his rivals before handing over to Lulham to secure victory at the chequered flag.

Verstappen has already talked about his desire to compete in more GT3 races in order to gear up for next year's Nurburgring 24 Hours, so the partnership with Lulham looks likely to continue for some time.

Who is Max Verstappen’s Ferrari team-mate Chris Lulham?

22-year-old Lulham came to prominence as part of e-racing superteam Team Redline, which also boasts Verstappen on its stacked roster of drivers.

Lulham started out in the British Formula 4 iRacing Trophy in 2020, where he won the season-opener and four other races to edge out current real life F2 title challenger Luke Browning for the title.

Joining Redline the following year, he went on to win the iRacing Nurburgring 24 Hours, the iRacing Daytona 24 Hours in GTE, the VCO ProSIM Series title at the year's end, and has picked up further trophies with the team as the years have passed.

Returning to on-track racing in 2024, Lulham dominated the Radical Cup UK with 16 wins from 18 races, before announcing that he would compete in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup and GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup in 2025, his debut season in GT3 racing.

Posting on Instagram after taking the win with Verstappen on the weekend, Lulham wrote: "What an experience this weekend to take home a victory on our debut at the NLS, thank you Max for flying out on track!"

Verstappen commented, saying simply: 'First of many!', accompanied by emojis of a salute and a bulging bicep.

Lulham is one of a growing number of drivers to transition from the digital space into 'real life' on-track racing, following in the footsteps of Glenn McGee (the first former iRacing driver to win an FIA-sanctioned world title when he won the Super Trofeo world championship in 2023), and the NASCAR pair of Rajah Caruth and William Byron – the latter a two-time (real life) Daytona 500 winner and perennial title challenger.

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