Verstappen: I’m ready for whenever we start again

Max Verstappen says he’s staying in peak condition in preparation for the start of the 2020 Formula 1 season despite ongoing postponements pushing back the season opener to late June at the very earliest.

The Red Bull driver has taken part in separate Esports series away from F1’s own Virtual Grand Prix competitions and is staying physically race ready with training programmes from home.

While Verstappen remains optimistic to get going at short notice, he is set to be waiting for at least a further two months following the latest extension to F1’s shutdown along with the postponement of the Canadian Grand Prix. It means provisionally the French round is set to host the 2020 opener on June 28 but that date remains under threat given the current coronavirus crisis in Europe.

“At the moment through the current situation I try to stay at home as much as possible of course and try to do my workouts at home,” Verstappen said on his social media channels.

“Of course we stay ready, we do sim work - on my simulator at home - and of course a lot of training as well to stay ready for whenever we’re going to get started again.

“I hope you guys are staying healthy in the meantime and I hope to see you guys all very soon.”

Amongst the nine F1 races either postponed or cancelled so far, Verstappen has seen his new home race the Dutch GP called off from its original date of May 3.

Speaking during the build-up to the cancelled Australian GP last month, Verstappen is relishing heading to Zandvoort to race in front of his home fans after getting an initial taste of the circuit during a demonstration run in an old-spec Red Bull.

“It was good. I think Turn 3 and the last corner, they look pretty impressive when you are going through the corner so it looks very nice and I think they did a really good job in renovating the track,” he said.

“It was a lot of fun to drive already with the V8 car, so I think with these cars it will be even better.”