Verstappen gets help from this Red Bull driver: 'All about correlation'
F1 News
Not only does Max Verstappen know the secrets of Red Bull Racing's RB21, a fellow Dutchman does too. Rudy van Buren is on the Austrian team's roster as a simulator driver, setting forth the foundations for the current world champion to make it five titles on the trot in 2025.
Busy times for Van Buren and his fellow sim drivers. Everything is being done to prepare the RB21 as well as possible for the opening race in Australia. To that end, Van Buren is also in regular contact with Verstappen, as he stated during a press session with Viaplay - where GPblog was present as well.
"Of course there is contact, but of course there are also a lot of capable engineers there. So is there direct contact? Yes, of course. But we also have to remember that there are a lot of important stations in between. Trackside team, simside team. To streamline all [the data] and [so] everyone can do their job to the maximum," the sim driver says.
Sim and trackside team have same tasks during testing
During some of the days of winter testing, Van Buren was working in Red Bull's simulator in Milton Keynes. The Dutchman explained that the work in the factory and on the track, while there are similarities between the two, they are not literally the same.
"In the end, in the sim you are usually about two or three hours behind at the beginning of the day. For the simple reason; with set-up changes, it can sometimes take half an hour to adjust the car. Of course, the sim remains a computer and it can be sorted out in a few minutes."
Still, the sim driver back at the factory and F1 driver on the track work through what is essentially the same programme. "Because we come up with the same, important word all the time: correlation. And then the sim does the same thing as the real car. Because that's something you can build on through the year. At the crucial moments, if it doesn't go on the track on a Friday, we can solve it in the sim and it's usable on the Saturday."
Van der Garde jealous of Verstappen
All F1 teams employ some sim drivers and the techniques used are now very sophisticated. The development of simulators has gone extremely fast in recent years. Giedo van der Garde even jokes that if there had been a Rudy van Buren with of him in his F1 racing days, he too would have become world champion. "I think I would have become world champion five times already," laughs the former driver.
"But of course Max can be very lucky to have Rudy. They obviously speak the same language. Rudy is an insane asset for Red Bull in the simulator, so it's nice to have him there."
This article was written in collaboration with Ludo van Denderen.
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