World champion Max Verstappen has started his preparations for the 2022 season. Besides training and working out, the Red Bull driver is competing in virtual sim racing events. He was leading in the virtual LeMans 24 Hours race before crashing out, and he had an early retirement in iRacing Daytona.

But he roared back to win the iRacing 12 Hours of Bathurst with teammate Luke Bennett in a Team Redline McLaren MP4-12C GT3. Verstappen was expectedly quite happy with his result at the event. “It was nice to race. The car went great, just like last year, despite the fact that we had a different car at the time.

“Our young protégé, Luke, drove very solidly, which is nice to see. It’s great that we were able to win this race for Team Redline together,” said Max after the race.

It surely is an unusual way to prepare for the upcoming season, but it is serving Max pretty well up till now. He could also quickly look to do some work on the 2022 car as well.

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Former Dutch manager claims Max Verstappen has made F1 a national sport

As reported by Planetf1, former Dutch manager Frits van Amersfoort mentioned that after his 2021 success, the world champion has made Formula One a national sport in the Netherlands. Amersfoort, who managed Verstappen in F3, praised his former charge for his performance in 2021 against Hamilton.

“Verstappen has made Formula 1 a kind of national sport. That is really incredible. People who never watched F1, they now all watch F1, and that is purely because of Max,” said Frits.

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“Lewis is Lewis, and has become World Champion seven times and not eight times because [Verstappen] shoots through motorsport like a rocket. I think we should all just enjoy it immensely,” said the Dutch manager.

It is simply amazing to see how popular the Red Bull driver is in his native country. Hopefully, we’ll see a Part 2 of the Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton battle in the 2022 season. The Dutch driver will be hoping that he gets a car similar to the one from the last season to retain his title.

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