Red Bull Insider Reveals Max Verstappen Needed ‘Online Help’ to Get Saudi Arabian GP sim run in 2021

Max Verstappen's ex-coach Bradley Scanes recalled the 2021 Saudi GP, noting Red Bull didn’t have the track ready on the simulator.

Red Bull Insider Reveals Max Verstappen Needed ‘Online Help’ to Get Saudi Arabian GP sim run in 2021

Max Verstappen (via Red Bull)

🔍 Explore this post with:

ChatGPTPerplexityGrok AIGoogle AI

Max Verstappen had to work very hard in the 2021 season as he was up against Lewis Hamilton for the championship victory. Tensions were high throughout the season, and every race was make-or-break for both drivers. Although Verstappen won the title in the end following a controversial win at the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP, the path to success wasn’t so easy. As such, the Dutchman’s ex-performance coach recalled how the 27-year-old couldn’t practice on the sim for the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP.

Formula 1 raced around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for the first time in 2021, and construction of the track ran late, as it was ready just in time for the inaugural Saudi Arabian GP. Because of this, many teams did not have the latest track ready for practicing on the simulator. Max Verstappen was one of the many who did not have the track on the simulator, and he led Lewis Hamilton by just eight points in the standings at the time and needed to put forth the best result possible.

Bradley Scanes recalled the moment and how Red Bull did not have the simulator version of the track ready for practice. Scanes pointed out that Max Verstappen had found someone online who was able to roughly build the track and what it looked like. Verstappen then put that version of the circuit on his own simulator and prepared for the race.

Red Bull didn’t even have the simulator version of the track in their simulator, and Max had managed to find someone online to build out what the track looked like, a spec to put on his own simulator.

Bradley Scanes said on the High Performance Podcast

Bradley Scanes declared that this work ethic and differences in preparing for the races set the champions apart from the rest of the grid. Scanes pointed out that the 2021 season was extremely cut-throat and every little bit mattered as Verstappen showed his grit and kept himself alive in the championship battle.

This is the sort of work ethic and differences that make champions, right? This is 2021. We’re in a title fight. Every little bit matters.

Bradley Scanes added

Bradley Scanes recalls Max Verstappen’s ‘greatest laps’ in F1 that were ruined

On Qualifying day back then, Max Verstappen was on a flying lap and could’ve set an unprecedented world record. However, he clipped the wall in the final sector and ruined his lap. If he had completed the lap, Bradley Scanes believed that it could have been one of the greatest laps in the sport.

Lewis Hamilton winning the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP with Max Verstappen in P2 (via F1)
Lewis Hamilton winning the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP with Max Verstappen in P2 (via F1)

Bradley Scanes recalled that Max Verstappen had to go through all this to prepare for the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP, but still, he couldn’t win the race due to the infamous ‘brake-check’ incident between him and Lewis Hamilton. The two drivers were tied with one another in points after Hamilton ultimately won the race with Verstappen in P2. Scanes also emphasized that if Verstappen had not hit the wall, the lap could have been one of the greatest, but he couldn’t finish the lap due to intense damage to the car.

Ultimately, we didn’t win Saudi for a number of reasons, but you could see the pace that he set first off, and actually, his qualifying lap before he pinged the wall would have probably gone down as one of the greatest ever. If he’d finished the lap, he could have damaged the car further, which then would have impacted the race.

Bradley Scanes noted

Max Verstappen won the 2021 driver’s title in the end and caused a lot of sore eyes towards him. Regardless, Verstappen proved all the haters wrong and dominated the paddock in the coming years and won three and potentially even more titles since then. Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, is suffering from a desperate slump and is unable to perform at the pinnacle of his career like before.

Read More: “Always Hated It,” Toto Wolff Reveals Dreadful Moment with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes