Watch Max Verstappen drift an F1 car on ICE

Getting deja vu? This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Max Verstappen launched into a world of dubious risk assessments in the name of our entertainment, with the Dutchman taking to the slopes of Kitzbühel in the RB7 way back in 2016.

Back then Red Bull kindly fitted a set of snow chains to his tyres before pointing him in the direction of the downhill course. But now faced with the GP Ice Race circuit at Zell am See Airport in Austria, it was time for something altogether more specialist: actual spiked tyres.

As you’ll see from the video above, the results are a mixture of jaw-dropping and just plain hilarious. The reigning world champ looks quite at home on ice, although those specially-designed, skinny Pirelli spikes are as comical as they are effective.

Meanwhile Verstappen had former European Ice Racing champion Franky Zorn for company, with the ice speedway star providing some friendly competition.

“This was my first time on the ice with a Formula One car and I’ve been really looking forward to it,” said Max. “It was very interesting and it’s quite slippery, so you have to be careful. Everything is very cold, including the brakes, and racing cars are obviously not designed to drive on the ice, which makes it even more difficult, but it was a lot of fun.”

According to Red Bull, this was the first time Max had driven in anger since his dramatic, last-lap victory in Abu Dhabi to snatch the world title away from Lewis Hamilton.

As F1 champion he has the exclusive right to use the number ‘1’ on his car, and if you look closely you’ll see that is exactly what he’s chosen to do. We haven’t seen it since Sebastian Vettel was reigning world champ in 2014: Hamilton has always stuck with 44, and as soon as Nico Rosberg won the crown he, er, retired immediately. 

“How many times do you get the opportunity to swap numbers?” Max explained. “And number one is the best number out there, so for me, it was very straightforward to pick it. Hopefully, number 33 doesn’t come back next year.”

There are a grand total of 23 races on the calendar for 2022, but on this evidence surely room should be found for the North Pole Grand Prix as a matter of urgency?