You won’t believe Verstappen’s lap times at the Nordschleife — While driving as ‘Franz Hermann’

18:34, 30 Jul

byEstéban den Toom

A few months ago, there was a lot of talk in Formula 1 about Franz Hermann — the pseudonym used by Max Verstappen during a test session at the Nordschleife in Germany. The Red Bull driver completed the test during an off-week from Formula 1 and is now offering insight into his lap times.

“The first lap was immediately a 7:56 on the VLN part of the circuit, so that was good. I mean, a few weeks before that, the pole time was a 7:51, I believe. And of course, we were driving with a full tank because I wanted to do multiple laps in a row,” Verstappen said in a video from Ford Performance.

“The second lap was a 7:54. Then I pitted and let my sim driver do a stint. After that, I went out again with a new set of tires and drove a 7:48. That was nice. The car drove really well, but above all, I felt comfortable — because I had already done thousands of laps in the simulator,” he added.

How Did Verstappen Come Up With the Name Franz Hermann?

Verstappen explained the origins of his pseudonym in the same video.

“The team from Emil Frey, with whom we run the GT3 car, said: you can drive under a pseudonym — do you have any suggestions? So I said: you know what, let’s make it sound very German. So I said: Franz Hermann. I thought, that sounds good. If you use a well-known name, people will approach you immediately, so I thought — let’s avoid that.”

Daniel Ricciardo, former teammate of Verstappen, also cleverly responded to Verstappen's news from months ago on social media. He called himself Frank Hermann because he was sitting on a tractor. Verstappen appreciated the joke and left a comment under Ricciardo's Instagram post.