My brother, my dad and I drove 18 hours to Spielberg in Austria to go watch a formula 1 race where we got the opportunity of a lifetime.
We got the opportunity to go into the paddock during free practice 2, and later on into the garage of the Red Bull racing team where Max verstappen drives , who we’ve followed for years. The manager who showed us around walked to Max Verstappen and tapped him on the shoulder. He was already all geared up. He wore a dark blue racing suit, with special racing shoes in red. He had multiple sponsors on his kit, like Aston Martin and Tag Heuer. He gave us a hand, and I noticed that he had a very firm handshake, probably due to all the training. Driving an f1 car will feel like carrying 6 times your own bodyweight while driving. We took a photo with him. they say he is one of the tallest drivers, but he was shorter than me. He was very kind, starting a conversation, but only for a short while. When you see him in real life he is so much more human than he looks on TV. He just seemed like a normal 21 year old following his dream.
Afterwards he went back to the car, put his helmet on, and talked to his manager. he always nodded in reply, the same for when he said no. He never said his answer straight up, unless he had to give specific information. He then entered the car. The sound it made inside the garage is almost like a bomb going off. You had to cover your ears or they were going to blow out. A Screaming noise, very low pitched. You could hear that it was fast, even when it stood still. We got to watch from the garage, until he crashed it in. We had to leave the garage. The race was 2 days later, and he ended up winning. All the dutch fans in orange cheering, it was even louder than the cars. Knowing he was in that car was an amazing feeling, having seen him in real life. Afterwards, we then had another 18 hour drive back home.
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