Verstappen happy with Van Buren: 'Settings are perfect most of the time'

Dutchman Rudy van Buren is in the simulator a lot on behalf of Red Bull Racing, together with Max Verstappen he talks a lot about the how the car can get better. Speaking to GPBlog, among others, Verstappen tells how the collaboration with Van Buren is.

During the test days in Bahrain, the RB20 and Red Bull's team are mainly focused on long runs. But off track, the team are much more engaged with the car in the simulator. So on behalf of Red Bull, Rudy van Buren steps into the virtual RB20. A collaboration that Verstappen is happy with: "I have a lot of contact with Rudy, of course. Then we talk about it, what he's tried, maybe see what can be improved. Of course it is very nice to have someone like that so high up in the team," said the world champion.

So Van Buren's job is to make sure the car in the simulator is already set up as well as possible: ''Look. Rudy, with a few other simulation drivers, they really go from the smallest adjustment to the craziest. He tests all of those," said Verstappen. The Dutchman is happy with Van Buren's work: "Usually when I come to the simulator, it's actually already pretty much set. Then it's fine-tuning. He also drove a whole race distance the other day, had to test things with the front wing, things like that."

Who is Rudy van Buren

Rudy van Buren is a 31-year-old driver who currently works at Red Bull to make sure the car is set up in the simulator to make the development of the car as successful as possible. In 2018, van Buren was a test driver with McLaren's team.