Verstappen unleashes mayhem in wild 100-kart challenge

Max Verstappen was given 100 amateur karters to chase down at Silverstone on Wednesday. What followed was less a race than a particularly brutal game of catch. And the Dutchman prevailed.

Starting dead last among 101 karts, the four-time Formula 1 world champion tore through the field in a chaotic ‘Max vs 100’ challenge staged by Red Bull, eventually catching every one of his rivals in just 14 laps and around 37 minutes.

The event was held on a specially constructed circuit combining Silverstone’s karting venue with sections inspired by the Grand Prix track, including Brooklands. With each lap taking roughly two minutes, Verstappen had been given up to 30 laps to complete his improbable assignment.

The rules were simple enough: overtake a rival and they were eliminated. The complication, from Verstappen’s perspective, was that he had to begin with the entire field between himself and victory.

The amateurs, meanwhile, weren't completely defenseless. All 101 competitors were given identical machinery, while the 100 challengers could also deploy a ‘fast lap’ during the first half of the contest, using a shortcut to increase the gap to their pursuer.

It barely mattered.

“When I was walking to the grid and saw where I had to start, I was like, ‘oof, that’s very far back’,” said Verstappen. “But after my first lap I was like, ‘ah, I think we’re alright, I think we’re good’.”

That assessment may have been the understatement of the afternoon.

Sixty-four overtakes in one lap!

Verstappen proceeded to turn the opening lap into a demolition derby, slicing through 64 karts as the amateur field struggled to cope with a Formula 1 driver suddenly appearing in its mirrors.

There was little room for etiquette, either. Verstappen was prepared to use every available inch of tarmac – and occasionally a little more – to get through the traffic.

At one point, the Dutchman even launched his kart over an inside kerb hard enough to scatter debris onto the circuit. Apparently, 100 opponents weren't quite enough obstacles.

By the fourth lap, Verstappen had dispatched 75 rivals. A lap later, that number had risen to 84, turning the challenge into something resembling his famous charge through the field at the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix – albeit in quite less perilous conditions.

And Verstappen was clearly enjoying himself. With radio communication available, he even issued a warning to one of the remaining fugitives:

“I’m coming for you,” Verstappen told his prey.

There was, at that stage, little reason to doubt him.

By lap seven, Verstappen had already reached the top four. Naturally, the spectacular early carnage began to subside once the field had been reduced to a handful of survivors, leaving the world champion to patiently stalk the final targets.

The organizers even handed the remaining amateurs another fast lap in an attempt to prolong their survival. It merely delayed the inevitable.

Content creator Zac Alsop, journalist Jacky Martens and Red Bull employee Lewis Osler found themselves occupying the final places between Verstappen and a clean sweep. Max then decided to finish the job with a flourish.

He took Alsop and Osler simultaneously with a move down the inside of the penultimate corner before picking off Martens with another inside move at the final turn.

• Read also: Nine-year-old Jack Wolff claims first karting championship

One hundred overtakes. Job done.

And with 16 laps still available under the original 30-lap limit, Verstappen had demonstrated that the biggest challenge at Silverstone wasn't catching him — it was staying out of his way.

“The first lap was just chaos, you want to survive, and then after that it was a bit like just hunting them down so that was nice,” said Verstappen. “Just put the laps in yourself and catch them one by one.”

Ultimately, the grand experiment proved what the motorsport world already knew: whether it's against twenty elite professionals or a battalion of one hundred karting enthusiasts armed with shortcuts, giving Max Verstappen a target is simply asking for trouble.

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