Original subtitles

Why do we...

I mean, sometimes we are a little bit like a baby.

How old is she now?

Two weeks.

- Almost two weeks. - It was Saturday?

Friday, so a week and six days.

Did you shed a tear?

Almost. When they are like on the edge

but then it's not falling out.

And when you held her for the first time?

I didn't cry. I was just really happy. I didn't cry.

Girls' house.

Yeah, it's definitely surrounded by a lot of girls.

But that's why every time we get a new pet, it's male.

Just to compensate a little bit.

To balance it. - Yeah, for balance, so I'm not alone.

How many cars are there? Do we know?

- Quite a lot. - I thought 130.

- Excuse me? Really? - I think so.

But can we just take this van on track or not?

- No, of course not. - Why of course not?

It's a race weekend. You can't just take a normal car.

- You need a roll cage, I think. - Okay.

Wait, you can literally rock out with any car?

I think in theory, I can go and get a Suzuki Swift

and hack around with it.

- I think. - Well, let's see.

We're doing a test day here at the Nordschleife

and they told me you can run under a fake name.

Oh, I actually have to talk with a German accent

because my name is Franz Hermann from Villentag.

Hermann Racing.

- Undercover. - Nobody knows.

- Nobody knows you're here. - No.

- So from now it's Franz. - Franz Hermann.

Let's make it as German as we can.

That's why it was Franz Hermann.

Sign there, please.

So how's your German, Chris? Is it good?

It starts at zero.

And the other one, please.

Today, you don't need a license.

You don't need a permit or something like this.

You just need a driving license. That's what you can expect out there.

Think about the others doing taxi rides.

That's many cars. - Yeah, many cars.

It can be all kinds of cars? - Yeah, it's mostly racing cars.

There is a small security package around the Nordschleife

so not on every marshal post, there's a marshal.

So it might take a little time when something happens

until we have the first intervention car with you.

We have informed some people that you are driving out there.

As soon as your number comes through the radio

a special intervention car will come out

just to avoid that you get lost out there in the Eiffel forest.

Yeah, well, that can also be an experience.

Yeah, maybe.

This track is really special.

This is a proper track.

First of all, the length, but also the difficulty.

Not knowing what you're going to get in terms of conditions.

Elevation changes, bumps that you need to understand

how to go over certain curves.

A lot of people in the beginning

struggle to remember the layout when they just start driving here.

It always takes a bit of time to be on top of everything.

Because it's that long, there are so many mistakes

that you can make on a lap.

To hit the perfect lap around the Nord is almost impossible.

Franz Hermann is going to try today.

With Franz Hermann I tried to keep it a bit undercover

on the entry list with participating in the day.

But once you go out there with full-on livery

there's nothing... Well, you can do a bit.

In the morning, it was a bit more quiet.

It's the most epic and gruelling track you can drive.

People call it The Green Hell.

I can't even think of anything that compares

to the type of balls you need to do that.

Probably no one has done a perfect lap there.

But to string it all together

it honestly takes just a massive amount of confidence.

To drive that in a full race back GT3 car

it really feels like driving a spaceship

around a narrow rainbow road, almost.

It's 25 kilometres through the forest.

You have the most extreme, different types of corners.

You have carousels up on the banking.

Half of it is vertical up and down through the forest.

Although there's no Grand Prix this weekend

and he's just had the birth of his first child

he was still at the wheel of a race car.

- Do you know Franz Hermann? - Who is Franz Hermann?

The legend of Franz Hermann.

However, it wasn't Franz Hermann, and instead it was Max Verstappen.

I mean, for me, it felt not so intimidating

because I've done like a thousand laps...

more than a thousand laps on the sim.

A few things change here and there. Barriers, some curbs and bumps.

But at the same time, you're driving a GT3 car.

Not a fun car. Speeds come at you a lot easier.

But yeah, I enjoyed it. It was just a lot of fun.

There was some compression.

So the carousel, you really have to hold the wheel.

So it's not... It really wants to... It wants to constantly push you out.

So you have to hold it, like the wheel.

It is flat, but there's a lot more engagement than on the sim...

The bumper is lifting.

The whole car is a bit more like throughout that whole...

Build up, don't go flat right away.

It's a confidence thing, you think you can't go flat

because it really jumps a lot.

But actually, when you keep it flat because you go faster

you'll have more grip, but it's a bit...

I'll hop in now then. - It won't lift unless you want it to.

Then I think you're ready to go.

Let's see how he feels afterwards. Because I told him to hold the wheel.

So far, it's been a really good season for Chris.

Sometimes you almost forget that it's his first year

because he's constantly in the top 10

fighting against all these pro guys.

Of course, you lack experience.

Of course, there are mistakes you make and you learn from.

I mean, we all make them.

But still, to be that competitive in your first year...

It's just great to see.

Chris Lulham, along with Thierry Vermeulen and Harry King.

My first lap was the most tense I'd ever raced

and that was already after six months with a GT3.

How was it? A bit of traffic, huh?

It's quite an ordeal. - Fucking hell.

You get loads of different things than on a normal racetrack.

I guess that's what gives the Nordschleife its reputation.

It's fun, but at the same time, you're preparing ahead

because I'm not here to just do my laps.

You're preparing to come back here one day and race in GT3.

He had a few rounds where we made some mistakes, operationally.

We felt a bit lost with the car, and that was

where you really started to be in a roller coaster of emotions.

Oh, my God. What are you doing, Max?

What is Max doing now?

I go to the F1 weekends, I do my thing as well as I can.

And then as soon as I go home, it's family time.

I'm busy with GT3.

I can easily switch my mind from Formula 1.

Next week, we have the 24 Hours of Spa.

So we did some testing, we had the prologue

but also when you're with three drivers on the car

it's quite tough sometimes to do a lot of testing.

So I felt like we basically ran out of time a little bit.

And yeah, I wanted to make sure that we'd go into the race weekend

at least with a balance that we were happy with.

It's the most important race of the year and I wanted to be competitive

and that we could fight at least in the top 10.

So that's why I think this is a bit like an emergency test.

And of course, the actual drivers are not allowed to drive the car

that close to the event at the track.

So then Franz has to step into the car.

Nice, right? The blue.

Mate, what's with this gala thing?

Which gala thing? Oh, the F1 movie.

Everybody's got a suit that's way too big for them.

The best one. Why aren't you there, Max?

We are actually doing performances.

They're all still sleeping there, and we are working on performance.

I'm not the type of guy that wants to be on the red carpet.

I'm not like that. I don't want to hang around with famous people.

I don't need to be in front of the cameras. That's really not me.

That's why I don't want to rock up there and be in a suit

and act important while we all shit on the same toilet.

The plan is to go from 100 to 30.

So it's like one extreme to the other.

We could go something in the middle, maybe for session two

but just so you've got it, like how much it is.

Bosh, we have two new tires already in session one.

That is just simply lovely.

We just came back from Montreal.

And of course, right now, I'm a bit sleep-deprived

but I will not be happy with myself if I hadn't done this.

Because in the race weekend

I'll know that we will leave lap time on the table

and we need to try and maximise everything.

Max has been super invested

right from the beginning since over a year ago.

Getting the programme together and putting all the pieces together

in order to let us perform.

He's involved in the engineering of the car

in the set-up decisions that we make

as well as testing the car himself with us

and also by himself without us just before the Spa 24 Hours.

These decisions are critical for our performance.

Not only me, but the whole team.

The endurance racing is with three drivers

and he has to help bring everyone together

and maximise the performance of the car.

My role is to, of course, first of all, drive the car myself

and understand what is needed to improve on.

It's a little bit longer than the morning.

For me, that's less of the issue. The bite is a bit worse.

I went out there and started with the base that we had

and I already had quite a lot of ideas of what I wanted to test.

And I had to speak to the drivers.

They had a few questions about what they wanted to try.

I look into the details of the car with the engineers

because even if it's more standard than Formula 1

there's still a lot of areas to improve performance.

I did a few laps in a row because I wanted to see how it would evolve.

Anyway, that was the plan.

I really like how it was before. That was very good.

Yeah? Round the back.

The problem is all three drivers

I just keep telling the same fucking thing.

They're all pushing for the same problem, you know?

Oversteering an entry, then they look at the data

and they're just matching each other, which is wrong.

But the thing is, that's why I'm happy that we run an Aston

and then they run also a Ferrari, because for the drivers

maybe for the performance it's not great

but it's good to adapt to different cars.

Otherwise it's just muscle memory. You're not learning anything.

It would be nice if he picked up.

No one's picking up.

Always on their phone, except when you need them.

Every time they're all on the phone. They're all on the phone, always.

If you need them, never on the phone.

I need to be in the car in five minutes.

Yeah, there they are. How's it going, guys?

We have the boy band complete.

- Very sexy. - How's it going there?

Yeah, all good. I started the morning

with basically the setup like you guys ran.

Now we are changing the diffs so in five minutes, I have to go out

to try the diff, so eight faces instead of twelve.

It's quite important to know the car, so they can't bullshit me.

About certain things, 'But the car is oversteering.'

'Have you looked at your inputs?' Stuff like that.

Because I know how the car responds to certain things.

But for me, like I said, it's important to understand the basics

so I can also give the best feedback to the drivers and the team.

We're going through the test items.

I mean, we'll discuss it more. I'm going through the data.

Thanks for what you're doing. - Yeah, no worries. Keep going.

- Good luck. Thank you. - Bye, guys.

Yeah, bye.

Yeah, thanks everyone.

That was, I think, the day that we needed, and I'm very happy with it.

You got any preference?

Whoever is fastest does the most.

You have to make sure to hammer down that they do not damage the car.

That's the only thing we need to make sure that he's not doing.

Hammer that down: don't get damage.

You can get hit, but don't crash into things.

- The same for Chris though. - Yeah.

I want you guys to share your honest opinion about stuff.

Not baby them. - Yeah, okay.

But now, I think we have some good references.

Especially now you've driven and you've felt it yourself.

Because they look to you.

Afterwards, they went into the race weekend

with a bit more information on the car.

I probably ask for a lot, but we're all there to win, right?

That's why we are going to race.

It was the first 24-hour race, with Verstappen.com Racing.

24 hours to go. - Yeah, it's still a long way to go.

- I know. - We haven't done anything yet.

Very exciting to see Chris come from the sim into the Aston Martin.

For Chris to be around Thierry is a very good thing

because Thierry is really a guy that goes out there and makes it work.

Because of sim racing, Chris hasn't really been out in the world.

So of course, when you suddenly get thrown into this world, it's a shock.

It is. Suddenly you're dealing with more people.

You have more responsibilities.

People are calling you, writing you. You need to answer.

You're living off a schedule. It's serious now.

You're a professional driver.

Nothing would have prepared me for that.

I mean, there's over 100,000 people there.

And then it's flat out the whole weekend, 24-hour race.

The race starts with 72 cars going up at the same time.

It goes from zero to 100 very quickly.

The fireworks as you're driving up Eau Rouge on the left and right.

It just gives you a bit of chills when you're watching that.

During the Spa 24 Hours, Max was there in Austria.

Yeah, he has his own thing going on in the business hours.

I got hit, like crazy. Fucking idiots.

Once that switches off, he was focused on what was going on for us.

I follow all the races whenever I can.

After my own race, I immediately go back on the iPad or a laptop

to catch up on the race and analyse it myself

and you get information from the team.

He just sends me a screenshot or two

with a paragraph showing these points

where you can try something different in the stint

and doing as much as he could from the other side of Europe, I guess.

- Nice. - Yes!

It did go well. We won in the closing minutes in our class.

It was actually a super flawless race.

That's incredible. - Well, Max!

That was our group's first time and a 24-hour race like that...

I rarely even have sim races 24 hours that are that clean.

The winning team in this gold cap category

give an applause, Verstappen.com Racing!

Harry King, Chris Lulham and Thierry Vermeulen won!

In honour of their victory, here's the Dutch national anthem.

It's a big relief when everything comes together.

I know how much effort everyone in the team has put in.

So you're just happy to do your part and deliver also for them.

- Happy, Max? - Yeah.

For our first 24-hour race...

Good strategy. We're on point with that.

We had a pretty strong pace and winning our class.

Couldn't ask for more.

It's very good.

Let's celebrate! Champagne!

Fascinating guests today. A superstar is on the grid.

Is this you, Chris?

Let's take the lead as fast as possible.

Overtake some people.

I had a bit of a moment.

It's not over.

Look how slow I am on this train.

Fuck me, mate. I'm soaked.