Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

VIDEO: Max Verstappen takes a Red Bull to the slopes

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Toro Rosso driver Max Verstappen has been carrying out a Red Bull showrun with a twist, driving an F1 car on the slopes of Kitzbühel.

Verstappen drove an RB7 at the Austrian ski resort this week, with the car being fitted with studded tyres and snow chains to tackle the Hahnenkamm mountain. 3,500 people turned out to watch, with Verstappen admitting it was a challenge to keep the car pointed in a straight line.

"It was something really special – not just driving on the snow but driving on top of the mountain," said Max. "The scenery was incredible, I enjoyed it a lot and I think all the spectators enjoyed it just as much as I did. I'd never driven any kind of car on snow or ice, never mind a Formula One car, it really was amazing.

"The main difficulty was what you'd expect – it was really slippery! But added to that was the fact that it was on a mountainside. You're on a slope, you don't want to start sliding, and you really don't want to make any mistakes. The guys did a fantastic job of designing a course and mapping out a track and that made it a bit easier, but it was still a big challenge. But that made it really interesting, making it more difficult for the driver somehow makes the whole thing better."

Check out the video of Verstappen taking on the slopes here:

Below, Red Bull's Mark Willis explains the challenge of preparing the car for such a demonstration:

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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.