One driver, 101 karts, 30 laps
Max Verstappen will start last on Wednesday at Silverstone. That is the entire design. The Red Bull driver lines up behind 100 other karters and has 30 laps to get past every single one of them.
The field comes from everywhere. Red Bull athletes, content creators, journalists and fans drawn from around the world, all of them in identical karts so the only variable left is the person holding the wheel. Once Verstappen goes past a rival, that rival is eliminated and heads back to the pits.
He has not seen the full entry list. He does not seem bothered about it.
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“It would be quite embarrassing”
“A hundred is a lot, you know, but I think how they’ve set up the track from what they’ve shown me, I think it will be good,” Verstappen told ESPN. “But it’s still going to be hectic, for sure.”
Tactics do not appear to be part of the plan. “I think I first need to understand and see the level between drivers,” he said. “I also don’t like to overthink the situation. I just need to go with the flow and try to make the best of it.”
Then came the line that will follow him all week. “I’m hoping that with my background, I should be faster than most. I hope! I mean, it would be quite embarrassing if they’re faster than me!”
A decade since he last sat in one
The background is real enough. Verstappen karted from the age of four until he was 15, the same pipeline that turned out a four-time Formula One world champion. What he has not done is climb into a proper go-kart since 2016.
He does not miss it, either. “Also with go-karting, because I’ve done it from when I was four years old until like 15, to go back now, your ribs are hurting,” he said. “It’s very different in that sense. You can get arm pump and stuff in a shifter, and I just feel like I enjoy more just being on a big track with a GT car.”
That is where his spare weekends go these days, including his attempt at the Nurburgring 24 Hours earlier this year. Wednesday asks a narrower question. Ten years away from a kart, against 100 people who have not spent those years in Formula One cars: which matters more over 30 laps?
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