Verstappen takes on 100 rivals in epic karting challenge

Next month, Max Verstappen will trade Formula 1 for something far closer to where his racing story began – and this time, he will have 100 opponents standing between him and the chequered flag.

The four-time world champion will return to his karting roots at Silverstone on September 16 for ‘Max vs 100’, an extraordinary one-off race in which he will start at the back of the field and attempt to hunt down every driver before time runs out.

It is an ambitious challenge even by Verstappen’s standards. The field will bring together Red Bull athletes, celebrities, content creators and members of the public, with ultrarunner Arda Saatçi, basketball player Chris Matthews, freestyle mountain biker Matt Jones and streamers TheGrefg, Caedrel and TheDonato among those already confirmed.

And unlike a conventional F1 weekend, Verstappen will have nowhere to hide. The Dutchman will be able to communicate directly with his rivals over radio while negotiating a purpose-built karting circuit at Silverstone.

Back to where it all began

For Verstappen, the spectacle also offers a chance to reconnect with the discipline that shaped his racing instincts long before he became an F1 superstar. He first climbed into a kart at just four years old, beginning a journey that eventually took him to Formula 1 at the age of 17.

“In go-karts you learn all the basics: starts, defending, overtaking,” he said.

“Of course, I spent a long period of my life go-karting, so it's always nice to return. It’s about understanding the grip of the go-kart. I've done so many years in go-karting that you quite naturally get back into things."

French driver and race director David Terrien has designed the Silverstone layout and tested it alongside two-time iRacing World Champion Sebastian Job. He expects Verstappen’s pursuit to provide an experience none of the 100 competitors will forget.

“When you have Max Verstappen chasing everyone, I think that's going to be the experience of a lifetime for all the drivers,” Terrien said.

“You're going to have Max showcasing all these skills of looking through the traffic, trying to prepare and plan where he can overtake people, and going through the traffic at the fastest speed he can because he doesn't want to let the drivers at the front pull away.”

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That final point could make Verstappen’s challenge considerably tougher than the headline number suggests. Job discovered that himself when testing the format with half the eventual field.

“I think to overtake 100 cars is going to be extremely difficult. Today we did it with 50, and even that was a challenge to do it in the allotted time. He's got his work cut out for him big time,” he admitted.

Red Bull is promising a production unlike a conventional karting broadcast, with game-inspired graphics and cinematic drone footage, while Disney+ will carry the event globally and ESPN will show it in the United States.

For Verstappen, though, the real attraction may be much simpler: 100 karts ahead, a stopwatch ticking and the opportunity to demonstrate that the instincts forged as a four-year-old are still very much intact.

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