Verstappen's former trainer shares 2021 anecdote: 'This is what makes champions'

Max Verstappen's former personal trainer, Bradley Scanes, recounted a story from the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that highlighted "the difference that makes world champions".

Verstappen worked with Scanes from 2020 to 2023, and while speaking on the High Performance podcast, the former personal trainer of the Red Bull Racing driver has made a revelation about the Dutchman.

Scanes told a story about Verstappen during the first edition of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. It was a new circuit on the calendar, and it was an important race, the penultimate race of 2021, with Lewis Hamilton and his title rival from Red Bull Racing competing for the world title.

Max Verstappen celebrated his first world title with Red Bull in 2021 before coming a four-time world champion | Red Bull Content Pool

Scanes amazed at Verstappen's "work ethic"

According to Scanes, Verstappen took the initiative due to circumstances, to learn the circuit as well as possible by heart: "Red Bull didn't even have the simulator version of the track in their simulator, and Max had managed to find someone online to build out what the track looked like, a spec to put on his own simulator.

"This is the sort of work ethic and differences that make champions, right? This is 2021. We're in a title fight. Every little bit matters.

"Ultimately, we didn't win Saudi for a number of reasons, but you could see the pace that he set first off, and actually, his qualifying lap before he pinged the wall would have probably gone down as one of the greatest ever."

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Verstappen's final lap during qualifying could not be completed after clipping the wall, robbing the Dutchman of one of his finest laps in the pinnacle of motorsport.

Scanes then explained why Verstappen did not finish his lap after his collision with the wall: "If he'd finished the lap, he could have damaged the car further, which then would have impacted the race.

"So he's on this absolute flying lap. It's P1, for sure. He pings the wall, and then just pulls it over and stops on track, and we're like, 'What's happened? What's going on?'

"But in his mind, he's like, 'Well, I've got to get points tomorrow because we're one race away from winning the world championship.'"