Being a 3-time F1 World Champion for Red Bull, Max Verstappen might be considered as someone who never drives rival teams’ racecars, but he has actually driven a Ferrari GT3 during a DTM test session.

Max Verstappen at the Frey-Hilti GT3 Test (via X)

Red Bull‘s marqueé driver Max Verstappen was brought into the team way back in 2016 when Helmut Marko spotted his talent. The Austrian offered Verstappen a seat at the Milton-Keynnes outfit as a replacement for Russian racer Daniil Kvyat. Ever since then, Verstappen has maintained a successful relationship with Red Bull that is going to enter its ninth year now. But it might pique the interest of many fans whether Max has ever driver a sportscar manufactured by one of Red Bull’s rival teams during his tenure as a part of the Austrian squad.

It is interesting to know that Max Verstappen has indeed ventured into the cockpit of a racecar manufactured by Ferrari. The Formula 1 racer had, in fact, left behind his F1 career to go back to GT3, a junior racing category, to try out the Ferrari 296 GT3 driven by his friend Thierry Vermeulen, a DTM racer who drives under Swiss team Emil Frey Racing.

During the Formula 1 off-season post the 2023 Championship campaign, Max Verstappen was perhaps craving the on-track action as he took to playing the Formula 1 video game on his computer.

The Dutchman also started streaming his sessions on Twitch. But he decided to taste the real on-track adrenaline by making a trip to Portugal and Mugello where the private testing sessions of Emil Frey Racing were taking place. And that is how he got to race a Ferrari GT3 model despite being a Red Bull F1 racer.

GT3 Team Principal proudly spoke of the honor of having Max Verstappen test for his team

Max Verstappen is a big name in the current Formula 1 world because of his string of records and astounding on-track victories. Thus, when a racer of his repute showed up at a private testing session of a GT3 eam, their boss Lorenzo Frey-Hilti was absolutely overwhelmed. The former racer from Switzerland did some laps in Thierry Vermeulen’s No. 69 Ferrari 296 GT3 with Max Verstappen and showered praise on the Dutchman.

Max Verstappen at the Las Vegas GP (via IMAGO)Max is totally uncomplicated – a down-to-earth, nice guy without any airs and graces. You can feel how huge his passion for racing is. Max even convinced me to do a few laps myself.Lorenzo Frey-Hilti said, as reported by AutoRacing1.com.

Coming to Max Verstappen’s private car collection, since Red Bull is not a car manufacturer by themselves like their rivals Mercedes and Ferrari, he does not get to have the exclusive cars launched by his team despite being a three-time World Champion. As per reports, Max has a host of hypercars and racecars in his garage which have all been manufactured by Red Bull’s rival teams like Aston Martin and Ferrari.