Original subtitles

Morning. -Morning. How's it going? Good?

Good. You? -Yeah, not bad.

I always had this passion of eventually setting up kind of my own racing team.

We decided to create Verstappen.com Racing.

At the moment it's Thierry driving in the GT3 cars.

Especially after all the right enders, when you get the chicane, but it's much better like this.

You show much more confidence on the braking, on the entry into the corner. It's much more stable.

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 drivers coming through...

that's something I enjoy.

Max, you are the three-time world champion. That's absolutely unbelievable.

Very lovely.

People ask: What do you do in your free time?

They expect you to be completely different to anyone else, but I also just enjoy normal stuff.

He'll do everything to win. You see the competitiveness coming out.

Can you shut up?

...on the braking, the entry into the corner.

I think my life off-track is very normal.

You know what I would like right now? Kebab. -Nice, nice.

Very simple, how it should be.

I mean, we're only 55 minutes late.

For Thierry, Max is the master.

He's insane.

Nice and simple.

Put this one on. -That's yours.

These are a bit too big for me.

One o'clock, half past one?

That wasn't too bad, actually.

I wanted to go on, but everyone suddenly went to bed.

We were thinking about something that Max was doing for a long time in several topics.

It was SIM racing, he was very engaged in GT3 and Jos was doing rally.

We wanted to bring everything under one umbrella, in one look and feel...

where Max is basically overviewing all three pillars...

with the passion he has for racing in general.

Did you get a spare engine? Are you serious? -Yes, of course.

You have a spare engine, mate. -That's R8, or Ferrari?

That's R8, Audi.

We come here well-prepared.

In case you go backwards into the wall, you have a spare engine.

My main focus of course is still on F1, so I can't dedicate my own time fully to it.

It's something I grew up with in the back of my mind.

One day, when let's say F1 is enough...

you don't want to continue driving, you want to run your own team.

Eventually I'd like to have Verstappen.com Racing as a team.

Now, we are at a team with our drivers, with our own liveries and sponsors...

but the target is to fully have your own team.

These lap times are already better. -Yes, it's colder, it just runs better.

My son is driving in GT-M this year and we have to learn a lot in GT...

because it's a different ball game than Formula 1.

I think it's the toughest GT3 category out there at the moment.

All good drivers are in it and to come in as kind of a rookie without much experience is tough...

but it's a good learning school.

Of course sometimes he's not happy with a certain performance...

but he's also the first one to say how I can do better, so it's not just pointing fingers.

It's always pushing me forward to improve and to learn from my mistakes.

I'm there to coach him, I'm there to help him. He sees the data, he sees what I do differently.

It's all about processing and learning.

It's not very smart to put on my socks last.

Still, this is the first time I put on a suit.

Rookie.

The car he's driving with is still very new...

so it's normal that you are still learning and finding a lot of things.

I jumped into the car myself. I wanted to feel what was going on.

Did you adjust the handles? -Yes, more to the front.

Three clicks, now, and a few before. -Can you show me?

It's a new car for him, so I talked about the buttons...

how everything works, as every car is different.

You operate the pedals with this handle over here.

In the pit lane, if you brake hard and push the button at the back of the wheel...

this turns to green.

Which button?

Ah, this one. -Right.

Don't hold it, just click it once. Now it's activated because it's green.

When you're in the air, you start it. You'll have a drop start, so you don't have to push anything.

Okay, and when I return?

You can just stop and switch it off with the start button. This should all work fine now.

I think he feels the limitation of the car in the second lap.

He's steering the car with his body. He feels everything.

He knows exactly what the car is missing to go fast.

For Thierry, Max is the master.

He's a three-time world champion, so if he says you have to do this and this, he's listening.

It was okay, but in the second lap, the first time I pushed hard, I nearly spun off.

In my fastest lap...

I took a right curve and I spun completely sideways.

I just couldn't get the lap together. In theory, I have a seven.

You were fast in sector two. I had trouble in the two fast right curves.

You just don't feel it at first.

But I think it's okay.

If you feel confident enough to enter that curve very fast...

It's quite hot. -We don't want to make it too hard for Max.

I think he just woke up.

Can you see him? -His curtains are closed.

No, a quarter past.

A quarter past nine, right? This is Max. -Where is he?

He's well.

Oh, he said 9.45. -Breakfast 9.45, first thing 10.15.

Oh, 10.15.

I looked at the schedule. It says 9.45. -Arrival.

Yeah, but it says 9.45 to like 10.05 arrival.

When I heard you, I thought you were still in bed.

Breakfast 9.45, first thing 10.15.

You have time to do some bending and stretching.

Age before beauty.

It's time to qualify in Monaco.

The streets of Monte Carlo will be the scene of the fight against yourself...

against the walls and especially against the clock.

Well Max, enjoy the day.

I'll be glad when it's Sunday evening.

Can you stream it, or how does it work?

It doesn't work?

Welcome everybody to Oschersleben...

as we get set for our first qualifying session of the new GT-M season 2023.

I think he went to the bathroom three times.

What was your first Formula 3? It was the first... -The first one? Silverstone? Hockenheim?

Were you nervous?

You felt a healthy tension. -Yes, I was tense.

...smooth actually, this really looked like he was pushing it on the ragged edge.

When I watch my friends racing, I'm probably more nervous than I ever am in the car myself.

Once you're in control, you know what you're doing...

but then someone else is controlling their job, right, their driving.

Nobody has put in a banker lap at the moment, they've all done their system checks...

their installation lap, they're back into the pit, it's just two cars out on the track at the moment.

The stopwatch for Thierry is the same as the stopwatch for the rest.

And yet, when you compete with the rest of the field, Thierry has to prove his speed.

And of course with Verstappen.com and Red Bull on the car, we want to compete in the front.

So he knows what the outlines are to be part of this programme. He has to perform.

In the end we want to be competitive.

I told my son: I'm happy to support you, but we have to compete in the front.

At least he has a free track.

He's at the free track.

Is he in the first sector? -In the second one.

Your friend had 23.

He loses 2/10 in the first sector.

I didn't feel super confident, just struggled a lot.

Then you started as a driver to push even more, try things that are just not possible.

You try to put more speed into the corner and then it's only getting worse.

I remember just talking to myself, like: What the fuck are you doing?

No, middle sector.

The grasp is there and he's still pushing on, pushing hard...

and he's still not out of contention for this yet.

Mick piece over.

He should have, the lap he did at 34...

he should have slowed it down instead of then continue pushing.

You look at the screens and you are just in the bottom half.

It's frustrating, because you put so much effort into it.

You try to prepare yourself so much and you have moments where it's going really well...

and then from one moment to the next it's not working anymore.

He did a bit of go-karting here and there, very little, not much at all.

I think step by step he started to pick up the virus of the racing as well...

so at one point we were like: Why don't we give him a go in a GT4 car and see how it goes?

We did those track days and you could see with basically no racing experience...

that he picked it up quite naturally, I would say.

He did a drifting course in Germany and he was facetiming me when he was doing his lap.

Half an hour later I got the first picture that he crashed.

So yeah, it goes with crashes.

He's racing against guys who grew up with me, who have a lot of racing experience...

so it's not easy to immediately be in the fight with them, know exactly what to do...

but it's good.

It's the hard way.

Instinct you cannot really train, that just comes naturally.

It's just those racing scenarios and just progressing through a race weekend...

knowing when to push, when to be on the limit or not.

He'll have to do it. He braked very late.

But again, I also didn't learn that in one or two years, every year you just get a bit better at it.

Now he does have a lot to do. The difference is two tenths.

At least. Alonso on pole for now.

Here comes Verstappen. Can he do it or not?

Verstappen. Yes. 1:11:3. The last sector again.

He takes it two times.

I'm curious to see how Jos will play.

He will cheat for sure.

Look who is driving behind us.

There is the director. -Where is Max?

Let's see who will win.

Good morning. -Good morning.

Incredibly fast.

You've got all the equipment. -Yes. These are great shoes, by the way.

Fast. -So much grip.

Where do we play?

Morning. -Morning.

How's it going? -Sweet.

Where did you get this one?

I wonder if my dad finds the place.

Jos. Oh, he's here.

Good morning. -Morning.

Thierry is of course the son of my manager first of all, but I know him since he was born basically.

We kind of grew up together.

My first real memory with Max was probably when I was about six...

and I had a remote control formula 1 car and he will for sure remember this story.

We were playing with the car, he was like: Can I give it a try?

So I gave the remote control to him and about 5 seconds later the car ended up in the water.

And that was my birthday present gone. -Yeah.

I need to still ask him if he can get me a new one.

What am I doing?

During padel you see more of his competitive side.

At the end he wants to win and he will do everything to win.

He wants to have the best racket, he wants to have the best technique...

he wants to feel ready so he will make sure that he is fully prepared.

For me it was also funny seeing kind of that side in him in a friendship...

because during padel it's still pretty relaxed, but you see the competitiveness coming out for sure.

That way.

Normally they always say you shouldn't start a business with friends, but it also depends.

I mean, if I believe and I see that they are well qualified, then why can you not be friends?

Everyone has to do their job as best as they can...

so at the end of the day the performance comes before friendship, but everyone knows that.

I think that should be the standard anyway when you set up a team...

that it's not there to have an easy going time, I'm there to win. I'm not there to just fill up the field.

I love it. -Yeah, it is fun.

Even when you play shit, it's still fun.

I mean, it's all about trying to get better. -Yeah, that's true.

I haven't watched the race properly.

In the first round when Calvin...

You were kind of sleeping at the start.

At the start, you go brake, gas, brake, gas.

You need to push gas and brake. Like this.

Especially if you have a leaking turbo, you need to push gas.

I try to do that, but sometimes the gearbox gets too hot.

It can get hot for a few seconds.

It will be all right. -Just press both a little.

With that preload... -Yes.

You're sort of missing momentum.

It's always good to come to a test day where there is no pressure, there is no one around...

you can just focus on your own things and try a lot of things to really know what direction to go to.

We just need to do more testing.

Now you know the brakes are shit. You can't help that.

No, we just have to keep going. -Yes, keep testing and... Set up.

The struggle a little bit is the... on the curb.

The car on the front doesn't seem to absorb the curb very nicely, it like...

The car is very oversteering, which I normally don't mind, but it was too much.

I want to try to get to an understeer balance because every corner I'm just fighting the rear.

It just feels a bit light on the rear. The more you can find there...

When he was speaking, he was getting straight to the point.

And also for the magnitude of the issue, it was clear how much I had to do.

Because of being in F1, they listen to you a little bit more. It's normal.

Thierry is a bit more of a rooky...

and of course the engineers are also quite stubborn, that's how they are.

He was already complaining a bit like:

The car is a bit on the oversteer side, it's not very stable on the rear...

but they were like: Yeah... do we trust his feedback fully or not?

But then I jumped in the car and I said the same thing as what Thierry said.

It's also important for them to know that what I say is the same as Thierry...

so they can trust his feedback.

I've had a lot of interaction with different drivers in the past.

Also quite important drivers.

But no one, let's say, at the level of Max.

Everyone can do a fast lap. That's probably the least hard thing.

But it's also understanding why you did a fast lap, or understanding 'where can I improve more?'

Just work for it. Work hard, understand the mechanical side of the cars as well.

The whole package that needs to come together. And that's what I try to explain step by step.

Yesterday it was really loose, but I felt that if we could improve the rear it had a lot of potential.

From yesterday we went down 4 plus 5.5 in the end. So, 10 millimetres.

I think also... What I feel, this car...

I think his commitment and his precision, always looking at the details...

which I try to do the best myself...

but I think with the experience he has, he's really good at that, and always thinking in advance.

He's very quick with the total process.

It's not the same as yesterday, but you can still lower it.

10 K. -I think he'll get faster.

I don't know. I'm really curious.

And look at that top speed, this, now. They're up to... They gave us...

Oh fuck...

To see him go directly up to speed...

Everyone at one point can put in quite a quick lap, but for him it just comes so quick.

Even if it's a new car, he can just drive around the problems and use his talent and his experience...

to directly be on the pace.

How do you think he's so good? -Because it's Max.

Oh, I see. -He is insane.

This guy is from another planet.

I know what to expect from this kind of guy. In this case, it was something really unexpected...

in a way that he was improving the lap time at a level which normally doesn't exist in real life.

So you are surprised, even if you expect it.

So yes, then you remember it's something to say to your friends when in the future you're in a bar.

You could just see the eyes lit up, from the end of day one to day two.

And you could see the confidence in their behaviour.

When we did the lap time, they were like: 'Wow, the car is quick, we made it quick.'

It really feels a lot quicker. It feels like a different car.

So again, it's like a whole boost to the team at the end of the day.

So they all went to the next race, I think full of confidence...

that yes, now we have a car that we can fight up front with.

It was great to be in Mugello, because over there, in two days, I gained a lot of confidence back.

I think also with the team. They started to trust me a bit more maybe, with certain setup feedback.

So it just kind of makes you forget the bad moments before...

and like a fresh start for the next weekends.

Front row: Verstappen on the right, Piastri on the left.

Who will take the lead here in Suzuka into the first turn?

Piastri has a great start, but Verstappen tries to block him.

Norris tries to pass him on the outside...

but on the inside, Verstappen still leads, beating both McLarens.

It looks so good, huh? The way he moves.

It's a beautiful day for the Red Bull team and Verstappen.

He is the emperor of Suzuka.

It's unbelievable, huh?

And it's party time here.

The sixth Constructors' title for Red Bull was inevitable...

so it's happening now. Great job by Verstappen.

Unbelievable, guys. You've deserved that.

What an unbelievable season we're having, unbelievable.

Large and in charge, that's Max Verstappen today.

What a great race, and that stint on mediums.

There you are. Congrats, first of all.

Thanks, it's fine. How about you?

It was tough with those two sets, after three pushes...

On that track, the tyres always take a bit longer.

Yes, because the track is very soft, very fine.

Yeah, it doesn't really bite. -No, it is what it is.

But why was the pressure lower than during the test?

I think the temperature was simply lower, so it didn't go up as fast.

So it's colder now than on Friday? -Yeah, quite a bit.

I guess it's a lesson for the next time. -You can say that again.

You can't change it anymore anyway. -Right.

I'll try to watch it on the plane. Hopefully the wi-fi is good enough.

Okay, otherwise I'll let you know later. I hope we'll have a good race.

Alright. -Say hello to the rest.

Bye. -Hey, son.

You'll be fine. -Any tips, Dad?

What? -Any tips?

Yes, brake later and step on the gas sooner.

And keep a bit more pace. -Exactly.

I will. -Bye.

Super Thierry, okay?

From GT4 into Porsche Cup to now into GT3...

he has a tough learning school, but he's around, he's there, so I see the potential is there.

I think in one or two years, he can pick up so much more experience...

and then he'll become a more all-round driver.

Easy.

I'm pretty confident that he can really fight for race wins, and who knows...

a championship?