Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen has joined top simracing team Redline to compete alongside his F1 duties.

Fresh from his fourth place in Hungary - a result which Toro Rosso technical director James Key told F1i the team "needed" - Verstappen has been announced as a member of Redline which is the world's most successful virtual racing team. The 17-year-old says he is looking forward to the challenge of racing with Redline which he will use to keep sharp away from F1.

"I enjoy simracing outside of Formula 1," Verstappen said. "I've been working with Atze [Kerkhof] for a while already and of course with Team Redline and Fanatec I'll be sharing the virtual track with the fastest simracers in the world which is a great test and the way I like it!"

Team manager Kerkhof says Verstappen is already a competitive racer when it comes to simracing.

"I'm happy and honoured to have Max onboard at Team Redline!" Kerkhof said. "Looking forward to continue our sim battles like we did in the F3 last year."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

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