Watch the First-Person View of Max Verstappen’s Epic Ski Slope Drive in an F1 Car
A strong argument for an F1 ice race if we’ve ever seen one.
If you've ever looked at a ski slope and thought Man, this looks like a great place to drive an 800-horsepower open-wheel race car, then you and Red Bull F1 driver Max Verstappen are on the same page. The same icy, terrifying, and all-around epic page.
Verstappen and company threw some chains on those meaty tires and pulled off the incredible stunt back in 2016, but the team's YouTube page recently uploaded a full, unedited first-person view of a practice run that showcases the true insanity of driving a Formula 1 car on top of an icy mountain in the Austrian Alps.
The crew laid out a serpentine circuit track that crossed back and forth over a ridgeline between two rises at the Kitzbuhel ski resort. Verstappen, who was just 18 at the time, had to pilot the 800-horsepower RB7 car along the icy surface just feet from a series of sheer, unguarded drop-offs. And he's not just out for a cruise—coming back down one of the slopes on his first lap, he guns it and manages to grab fourth gear before he's forced to back off by the treacherous terrain.
Red Bull Racing has a fun habit of putting their retired F1 cars in places they don't belong. Last year, Scuderia Toro Rosso reserve driver Sébastien Buemi thrashed the world championship-winning RB8 car up a cobblestone mountain pass in famously racing-averse Switzerland.
Even though F1 probably won't be adding a Winter Grand Prix anytime soon, here's hoping the Winter X-Games sees fit to follow up their addition of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle snow hill climb this year with a spot of sketchy ice racing.