Rindi Putra
It's no secret that apart from being a Formula 1 racer, Max Verstappen also really likes the world of sim racing. It's no wonder that currently he is building a real-life GT3 team whose racers are taken from virtual racers or sim racing.
If there is no F1 race schedule, Max always keeps himself busy by racing in the simulator that is at home. And when racing virtually, Max sometimes does live streaming on the TeamRedline Twitch account.
From that daily schedule, it's not surprising that he wants to facilitate talented sim racers to race in the real world. In his interview, Max Verstappen said that the team would be ready in 2025 at the earliest.
After the Belgian GP race, the drivers entered a summer break or long holiday, including Max Verstappen who returned to the Netherlands. Apart from resting, Verstappen is also busy with interviews with local media discussing various matters, including his plan to form a GT3 team.
Looking for Drivers from Sim Racing Community Because Not Everyone Can Afford Go-kart
Max Verstappen wanted to create a GT3 team in real life that could accommodate the talented drivers who were unable to start their careers in karting. Professional sim racing is actually not cheap, it can be up to hundreds of millions to be able to race competitively. However, when compared to karting or professional karting, sim racing is still very reasonable in terms of capital.
"It’s about being able to create a stepping stone from sim racing to the GT3."
"So that you don't have to rely on karting to get into motorsport, because that costs a lot of money at the moment." -Max Verstappen
🗣️| Max wants his own GT3 racing team to offer sim racers a route to real-life racing without the high costs of karting❤️
— RBR News 🇳🇱🇲🇽 (@redbulletin) August 4, 2023
“It’s about being able to create a stepping stone from sim racing to the GT3.”
So that you don't have to rely on karting to get into motorsport, because… pic.twitter.com/6MHinY8hhk
From several online sources that specifically discuss go-karts, it is known that the costs for go-kart races vary. The cheapest you can buy used go-karts for $1000 (one thousand dollars) and the most expensive, 2-stroke go-karts, can be over $10,000 (ten thousand dollars).
The above costs are only for buying 1 unit of go-kart, apart from that there are costs for spare parts, tire sets, fuel, transportation, tools, etc. Here are some price lists for go-kart spare parts from the GoKart36.com page
- Engine (Machine): $200-$4000
- Chassis (chassis): $15000-$6000
- Speedometer: $250-$1000
- Stands/Tools (tools): $250-$1000
- Tires (Tires): $200/set
- Extra Parts (including fuel): $1000 (minimum)
The above list does not include transportation costs which can increase to $10,000 (ten thousand dollars).
- Gokart race fees at the regional level
- Gear: $200-2500 (until broken)
- Practice: $250-$500/per day
- Races: $350-$700/per day
The above costs do not include costs in the event of damage such as a blown tire, or even an accident that damages parts of the car.
It turns out that the cost of professional karting is that expensive, right? Max said it was expensive, what about ordinary people like me. Haha
The cost of making a GT3 team is also not cheap
Let's say you have talent like Max Verstappen and you don't need to start your career from the karting track and want to start racing in GT3 right away, you still need a very large capital, much bigger than the world of karting, of course.
From the Dailysportscar.com page, if you want to create a GT3 team to race in a 24-hour endurance event, you need at least $1,400,000 (one point four million dollars).
Of the 1.4 million dollars, only $ 550,000 will be used to buy a car with specifications for racing in the GT3 class, the rest is to finance other departments such as spare parts, tires, fuel, oil, nitrogen, etc.
Apart from that, you also have to pay for the garage, and also don't forget there are logistics costs such as trucks, lodging, consumption, etc.
So building a GT3 team requires a huge commitment, otherwise, the millions of dollars will go down the drain.
Will you be expanding into other racing classes? Creating an F1 team?
Currently, there are actually several drivers under the management of Max Verstappen who have raced in several races, including his own father, Jos Verstappen.
But even though they already have several drivers, they still race for other people's teams and Max Verstappen is only a sponsor.
Therefore, the main target of this project is to create a GT3 team that is wholly owned by Max Verstappen (with sponsors of course).
Will there be a team to race in other classes? or even create your own F1 team?
“The ultimate goal is to set up our own racing team. We will start in the GT3 class and then we will see where the ship sails.”
From the comments above it can be seen that right now his focus is on creating his own GT3 team. Only then will he consider what steps to take next and making an F1 team seem far out of reach even for a Max Verstappen.
From other information, it is said that the team will be ready (at the earliest) in 2025, but the process has started now.
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