The sim rig Max Verstappen swears by ahead of his GT3 race against Rossi

Outubro 1, 2026 lojamais44@gmail.com

Max Verstappen hasn’t sat in a GT3 car since leading his class at the Nurburgring 24 Hours back in May, and he’s about to jump into one against Valentino Rossi with very little lead time. On October 17, he’ll climb into the No. 3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the GT World Challenge Europe finale at Portimao, sharing driving duties with Chris Lulham and Ben Barnicoat.

The seat opened up because drivers Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon are racing at the World Endurance Championship round that same weekend. Rossi will be on the same grid in a WRT-run BMW, which is reason enough for us to double-circle the date.

But Verstappen, too? It makes me wonder how he finds the time.

This is the sim setup that allows Verstappen to master multiple forms of motorsport.

Why Max Verstappen chose a static rig

Most high-end sim setups chase realism through motion platforms that pitch, roll, and shake to mimic what a real chassis does under load. Verstappen chose not to invest in this tech, choosing instead to stick with a static setup. Speaking on Team Redline’s YouTube channel, he said: “I’m driving at home on a static rig because it’s faster. All these kinds of motion rigs are slower but of course, if you want to try and replicate a little bit of what you feel in real life, then yeah, you buy a motion rig. But I think it’s not really necessary at the moment.”

With Verstappen unlikely to be bound by a budget when putting together his dream rig, this choice comes from the fact that you can simply be faster when not wrestling unnecessary movement. It’s not like the man needs experience with G-forces created by a car.

24h Spa 2026: Verstappen-AMG raus, erneuter Ferrari-Reifenschaden

Photo by: SRO/JEP

The hardware and the team behind it

At home in Monaco, Verstappen trains on Simucube ActivePedals, paired with a Precision Sim Engineering LM-X wheel, in front of a triple 32-inch curved display setup made of Samsung Odyssey G7s. The wheelbase driving that rim is a Leo Bodnar SimSteering2 Ultimate, and his seat is a Custom Recaro Podium. He also has an F1 World Drivers’ Championship trophy sat right next to his setup. An exact price tag isn’t known, but estimates have put a comparable build somewhere between $25,000 and $35,000 or more (not including the trophy, of course).

The setup also boasts a Red Bull Mini Fridge Baby Cooler 2020 RB-BC2020 for all the energy drink fuel, I can only assume.

“It’s pretty custom, and you can buy it all online, but you get into some personal settings as well,” he told Car and Driver at the beginning of 2026. “The most important to get right is the brake pedal,” he continued. “And the wheelbase. Those are probably the most important parts aside from a good computer, but for me, those are the most important things to get right if you want to be really competitive.”

On race weekends, Team Redline builds him a travel version inside his motorhome using a Sim-Lab P1-X cockpit, and it comes as no surprise to find out he has a couple more in other locations, including one on his yacht.

But what software does he use to polish his skills between races? iRacing is his go-to. And his team, Team Redline, frequents the events held by the company behind the realistic racing game.

Whatever happens at Portimao against Rossi, Verstappen will have logged more hours bolted to a rig that can go anywhere than most of the field have logged in actual GT3 machinery this year.

“My dream is of having a sim driver move into the real world and making it a success story, and seeing him progress, and seeing him evolve, hopefully in the long term, make him basically a professional driver,” he told The Athletic last year.

“That he can make his living off it. That is the goal, and that’s something that slowly we’re making ways in.”