Starting from last, Verstappen\u2019s opponents comprised a wide range of sporting, entertainment, and online content creators alongside invited fans from around the globe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I went to the grid and I saw where I had to start, with 100 karts in front of me, I was a little bit worried,\u201d Verstappen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter my first lap, with all the carnage, I did think \u2018Okay, we have got this under control!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started to become really fun and once I started getting into a rhythm, was able to overtake them one-by-one and saw the gap closing, that was really exciting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great to just be back in a go-kart again and go back to basics, it reminded me of racing back in the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really beautiful track and well designed, and it was a nice touch to be able to get all the data fed through the radio too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The race was scheduled for 30 laps or 75 minutes, and under the rules, a kart was eliminated the moment Verstappen drew level with their front end.<\/p>\n
Verstappen did not need 30 laps, however, accomplishing the task in just 35 minutes with 14 laps complete.<\/p>\n
The track used was a temporary layout designed specifically to accommodate the enormous field.<\/p>\n
Track designer and race director David Terrien was blown away with Verstappen\u2019s professional approach to the enormity of the task.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing through the traffic of such a big field, no one has done it,\u201d Terrien said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s never been a karting race with so many karts.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo even Max was questioning himself just before the start, how he could go through the traffic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at the replay, he picked the right spots. Every time there was a gap, he went for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s what makes the difference with Max \u2013 his starts, and his reaction time. Even if it\u2019s a fun race, he showed his skills in all aspects.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was talking to Max\u2019s race engineer and we were looking at the replay of the start. And he sees something we don\u2019t see. He sees a gap that\u2019s going to open and it\u2019s not open yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a race vision, that\u2019s something he has that most of the drivers don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n
To add to the hilarity of the challenge, each kart was fitted with on-board cameras and microphones, allowing the viewers a unique insight into the race, allowing Verstappen\u2019s exchanges with his competition to be heard.<\/p>\n
The full event can be viewed around the world on Disney+ thanks to its partnership with ESPN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starting from last, Verstappen\u2019s opponents comprised a wide range of sporting, entertainment, and online content creators alongside invited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,825,946,9910,85],"class_list":["post-894722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-max-verstappen","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-slot2","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}