CAN F1 DRIVERS DRIFT?

Sure, Max Verstappen is one of the fastest drivers in the world operating at the top of his game, but can he smoke a set of rear tyres like the the best of them? We're there to witness his intro to the science of sideways

- JASON BARLOW

Max Verstappen is on fire. A huge lick of M flame has erupted from the exhaust of his car, and he's just dumped the clutch with a ferocity that would detonate a Formula One gearbox during a Grand Prix start. "Rev it to the moon!" says the man beside him, as the air is rent asunder by a sound like a haunted beehive. Then they explode forwards, and more pertinently sideways. Very, very sideways.

F1 drivers don't generally drift. If they do, it's usually the precursor to a crash or a big spin. Supernatural car control is a given, yet oversteer is anathema. But today reigning - soon to be triple - F1 world champion Verstappen is on a mission to add another skill to his formidable armoury. He's learning to drift. Now, Max's racing comfort zone is so well established he's practically moved a sofa and giant flatscreen TV into his all-conquering Red Bull RB19. But he insists there's work to be done.

"I've never drifted in my life. I haven't prepared at all so I guess that's even better," he says with a sheepish grin. "Here and there I've drifted a bit in my F1 car, but not like we're going to do today. Let's see if any skills I've learnt over the years can help me."

Here and there, he says. Skills. He's being a touch disingenuous. Cast your mind back to the rain-soaked 2016 Brazilian GP when Max exited the last corner on whatever counts as full opposite lock in an F1 car and somehow managed not to bin it. (It looked impossible.) Even more impressive was the powerslide when he drove Jean-Éric Vergne's Toro Rosso in a practice session at the same circuit two years previously. (That went viral, JEV moved to Formula E.) We know Verstappen has a propensity for getting his elbows out during a race, and for finding grip where none apparently exists, but he's also able to make an F1 car dance.