TOWARD THE END of Max Verstappen’s first season in Formula 1—a season in which he’d become, at 17, the youngest-ever driver to compete in racing’s top series—he returned home to the north of Belgium to take his road test for his driver’s license. Despite winning in every racing category from seven years old onward, he hadn’t been in much of a hurry to drive normal cars, but it was getting to be a little silly. There was a break in the 2015 schedule, and a tight window to take the test before jetting off to a stretch of races in Asia. The driving instructor was actually very strict,” he told me recently, before clarifying, which is very good—it should be like that! And I wasn’t nervous but just a bit like: I really need to pass this test. There was a bit of pressure on it.”
Verstappen ultimately passed but nearly received a fatal infraction when he failed to cede the road. Yeah, I didn’t give way twice,” he confessed, laughing knowingly.
Verstappen, from earliest racing days, has been known for an aggressiveness that lives— mesmerizingly or maddeningly, depending on where along the paddock one sits—right on the limit. Max’s best form of defense is attack,’ the Red Bull Racing team principal, Christian Horner, likes to say. Verstappen’s lead rival over the past few seasons, the seventime world champion Lewis Hamilton, has put it slightly differently: Max is kind of do-ordie. It’s like you're either crashing or you're not going by.’ In other words: Max is not giving way. Ever. I think he pushes it to the limit and probably beyond,’ Hamilton added.
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Denne historien er fra December 2022 - January 2023-utgaven av GQ US.
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SHABOOZEY THE BIG SHA BANG
Shaboozey spent months at the tippy-top of the charts with a hit song about dealing with hard times the easy way: by hitting the bar. He sang on a couple songs with Beyoncé too. So we asked the one and only SHANIA TWAIN to help country's biggest new star make sense of his explosive year.
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It's hard for Dwayne Johnson to hide. Wherever he goes, there he is― as conspicuous out in the world as he is on the silver screen. But after two decades of playing a version of himself in huge movies, suddenly Dwayne Johnson is ready to do something entirely new: vanish.
How the WNBA Became the Most Fun, Complicated, and Exciting League in Sports
Caitlin Clark! A'ja Wilson! Angel Reese! This year, women's hoops emerged as a dominant popcultural force. But the road to sports-league supremacy has been long and winding. This is the inside story of how the W finally broke through.
A Companion for Your Wrist
Audemars Piguet's new release with artist Brian Donnelly, a.k.a. KAWS, brings high-art hype to the world of pop-watch collabs.
