Verstappen has, literally and figuratively, a great admirer
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- Ludo van Denderen
With his height, he immediately stands out. Standing at 6ft 6in tall - 2.03m to be precise - is basketball player Pascal Siakam, the two-time NBA All-Star from Cameroon, who is a guest of Visa Cash App RB in Austria. On his head is a cap of the Italian team. Yet his favourite driver does not come out for VCARB, but the sister team Red Bull Racing. That is, after all, Max Verstappen.
"I think he's awesome," Siakam tells GPblog. "He wins all the time. I love winning. I think just seeing the dedication, I like how serious he is about what he does. It seems like he takes his craft really seriously. I love that part of it. I know what that feels like."
Busy life in the NBA for Siakam
A life in the NBA is pretty spicy. A season consists of as many as 82 games, and that's without the duels in the playoffs. The player of the Indiana Pacers - who reached the Eastern Conference finals with his team - also has to make the necessary sacrifices to stay optimally fit as an athlete. "Yeah, I have to do that for basketball. There are a lot of distractions. But you've got to keep the main thing the main thing, and I think he does that well."
Earlier in the day, Siakam spoke to Yuki Tsunoda, one of VCARB's drivers. The Japanese driver is 1.61 metres, so that's quite a difference from Siakam. "Yeah, I met him in Miami before. But yeah, I know I'm tall for a lot of people anyway," laughed the basketball player with a love for motorsport.
"I love being a Red Bull athlete. I love the sport. I love cars. And I've been to a lot of different races, and it's awesome. I love going to different countries and exploring. Obviously, being here in Austria, Spielberg, it's a great track, and I'm glad to be a part of it," Siakam concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy