Verstappen among entrants for Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours
Max Verstappen in the Red Bull garage. Abu Dhabi December 2021
Max Verstappen is one of many big names from the world of motorsport taking part in the upcoming virtual Le Mans 24 Hours.
The 2021 World Champion has done a lot of virtual racing for Team Redline during the off season in the past, and that remains the case this year.
A virtual version of the iconic race will take place from January 15-16 and Verstappen will drive for the team alongside McLaren’s IndyCar driver Felix Rosenqvist and two sim racers, Max Benecke and Atze Kerkhof, in the LMP division.
Each team competing is required to have two FIA-graded drivers, which means the Red Bull man and Rosenqvist are not the only two high-profile professional racers taking part.
Juan Pablo Montoya will be driving the LMVS Guest Car with his son Sebastian, while 2021 IndyCar champion Alex Palou will be racing for Team Fordzilla.
Realteam Hydrogen Redline won the opening round of the series and will be fielding Formula 2 driver Felipe Drugovich and Formula E driver Oliver Rowland as their professionals.
🦁The 2021 #F1 Champion @Max33Verstappen is in the #LeMansVirtual house!
The Dutchman will join @TeamRedlineSim as he goes on the hunt for the biggest crown in sim racing – the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual 💪
🌐https://t.co/sbGVIfek89 #WelcomeMax 🤝 pic.twitter.com/VIDszQaAjc
— Le Mans Virtual (@LeMansVirtual) January 7, 2022
Mercedes, Red Bull and Alpine are also taking part, entering their regular eSports teams, with Fernando Alonso captaining the French team but not driving himself.
Outside of the LMP class which contains 29 entries in total, W Series has entered the GTE category, fielding a line-up consisting of full-time series participants Ayla Agren and Fabienne Wohlwend.
There are some big names from the world of virtual racing too, with the two previous winners of the World’s Fastest Gamer award, Rudy van Buren and James Baldwin, driving for BMW Team Redline and Veloce Racing respectively.
The Le Mans virtual series as a whole has a prize pool of $250,000 with half of that being given out for the upcoming 24-hour race, which will be broadcast to the public on a number of social media channels.
