Max Verstappen improved the lap record at the Zandvoort circuit during the Jumbo Race Days yesterday. And that is how it should be: the lap record should of course be in the hands of 'our' Dutch F1 driver.
What the news about Max Verstappen does on a site about classics? The car that Verstappen drove is fast becoming a classic car. He drove his lap record not with the current Red Bull RB13, but with the RB8, the car the team drove in 2012 with. Not without reason, because according to the F1 regulations it is not allowed to drive the current car outside of the race weekends, except for the official test days of course.
There is quite a difference between the RB13 and the RB8: the current car has an 1,6 liter six-cylinder, while the car from five years ago has an 2,4 liter V8. Visitors who had set themselves up on an engine that barely sounds spectacular - a complaint that you have heard a lot with Formula 1 in recent years - were therefore surprised. Not only does the V8 'yell' harder due to the absence of a turbo, the maximum speed of that engine with 18.000 is also somewhat higher than the 15.000 of the current engine.
Old stuff
For fans of 'old stuff' there was more to see, because in addition to the demo run of Max Verstappen there was a BOSS GP race. This class is intended for single-seater; the abbreviation BOSS stands for Big Open Single-Seaters. You will find, among other things, old F1 cars at the start, including, for example, the Benetton B197, the car with which that team drove in 1997.
In addition, racing heroes of all time could be seen both next to and on the track. First of all Max Verstappen, but also Jan Lammers, Arie Luyendijk, Robert Doornbos, Christijan Albers and Gijs van Lennep were present. Luyendijk, Van Lennep and Lammers also drove a few laps in the car with which Lammers, together with Frits van Eerd and Rubens Barrichello, participated in Le Mans.
Fastest ever
They could see with their own eyes how Max Verstappen set a new track record on the newly re-paved circuit: 1: 19.511. With that he broke the previous lap record of 1: 19.880, which was set down in 2001 by the Italian Luca Badoer with a Ferrari.
Some newspapers headlined that Verstappen was 'the fastest ever on Zandvoort'. That is only partially true. He is the fastest on the 'new' circuit, as it has been since 1999. The original circuit, on which up to 1985 also F1 was driven, was faster and moreover a fraction shorter. So: yes, Max Verstappen has the lap record at Zandvoort, and yes, others made faster laps for him. But who knows what Verstappen has in store in the future ...
Photos: Marcel van Hoorn / Red Bull Content Pool and others