Max Verstappen thrives in new role as Red Bull ace follows in Helmut Marko’s footsteps
Max Verstappen is all-conquering on the race track, but the Dutchman is trialling new roles away from the cockpit.
Max Verstappen has expressed his passion for promoting and developing young talent as he follows in the footsteps of close friend and Red Bull’s driver academy chief, Helmut Marko.
The Dutchman has been responsible for mentoring and developing 22-year-old Dutch driver Thierry Vermeulen, who is competing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) championship with Emil Frey Racing. The series has recently hosted Alex Albon and Liam Lawson and produces some of the most competitive GT3 racing in the world.
Verstappen’s involvement with Vermeulen and Emil Frey Racing comes under his Verstappen.com Racing project. This initiative intends to “integrate racing teams from both the virtual and real world and support these teams and drivers to maximise their potential”.
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With the aid of Verstappen’s input, Vermeulen has successfully made the step up from the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup series to DTM. The young Dutchman ended his rookie campaign with seven top-10 finishes in his final 10 races after a shaky start to the season.
Discussing his passion for the project in a recent Viaplay documentary, Verstappen said: “What I also enjoy is to see young talent coming through. So that’s why to try and create your own team and seeing that growth of the drivers coming through is something that I enjoy.”
However, Verstappen’s pursuit of race-team management is not a new desire. “I always had this passion of eventually setting up my own racing team,” he continued. “We decided to create Verstappen.com Racing. At the moment of course it’s Thierry driving in the GT3 cars.”
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In his mentoring role, Verstappen is drawing comparisons to long-time friend and close ally Marko, who was responsible for developing and promoting the now-three-time world champion into F1 at the age of just 17 back in 2015.
The Austrian oversees Red Bull’s driver development programme, which has also promoted the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Alex Albon, Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz onto the F1 grid, among many others.
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Verstappen doesn’t only develop talent though. He occasionally tests for the Emil Frey Racing outfit too, and he always impresses. "I usually know what to expect from certain drivers, but this was really unexpected,” explained one engineer.
"He improved his lap times in a way that doesn't exist in real life. Even if you expect something like this from Verstappen, you're still surprised. It's stories like that that you share later in the future when you're on the road with your friends in a van."
