F1 News: Max Verstappen Moves Away From Formula One With Recent Investment
Max Verstappen has a pretty different long-term plan set for himself. The Red Bull Champion is all set to start his own racing team in the GT3 category. In association with Verstappen.com Racing, the 25-year-old is all set to spend a part of his $200,000,000+ wealth on his own racing team.
As per a report by Dailysportscar.com, it would take up around $1,400,000 to set up a racing team from scratch and participate in a 24-hour endurance race. The majority of the money, around $550,000, would be spent on a GT3 race spec car.
The rest of the funds would be incurred on logistical expenses like a race truck, hotels for the team, and food in addition to expenses on a garage and its equipment, car consumables like oil and nitrogen, expenses on car parts, tire sets, etc.
It is a big deal to setup up a GT3 racing team. However, a determined Verstappen wants to have his team up and running by 2025. Speaking to Formule1.nl about his racing project 'Verstappen.com Racing', he said that the project is a way for him to support and sponsor racing projects of people who are close to him including the DTM project of Thierry Vermeulen as well as the Redline sim racing team.
But the end goal is to set up his own GT3 racing team. And this initiative is not something he aims to do besides F1. He said:
“The ultimate goal is to set up our own racing team. We will start in the GT3 class and then we will see where the ship sails.
“When I do something, I want to do it well. I want to win, even with this.”
The GT3 team also aims to be a stepping stone into the world of racing from sim racing apart from karting which was the only point of entry into the world of racing. Verstappen is eager about the upcoming venture and is gearing up to start as early as 2025.
Speaking of 2025, Verstappen has mentioned his retirement plans on several occasions which also syncs with Mark Hughes's claim that the racer will not stick around Formula 1 until the end of his contract in 2028, but will leave much before that. Hughes is all set to release a biography on Verstappen. He commented in the Race F1 podcast:
“If I had to speculate and guess, I think he will run till the end of this formula, to the end of 2025. I don’t think the 8th World title will be a thing. Winning the title was all targeted. I don’t believe he will go till the end of his contract. It’s too long."
Hughes also said that Verstappen won't mind missing out on $180,000,000 from Red Bull in exchange for his peace of mind. Considering Verstappen's courage and his zeal to win, we could see his GT3 racing team dream become a reality pretty soon.