Ricciardo, who was Verstappen’s teammate between 2016 and 2018, has rejoined Red Bull as the team’s third dr🎃iver after having his McLaren contract cut-short and being left without a full-time F1 sဣeat for the upcoming season. 

Along with carrying out marketing activities and acting as Red B✤ull’s💧 reserve driver at select races in 2023, Ricciardo will also spend time on the team’s simulator. 

But two-time world champion Verstappen says he would rather🅰 carry out the work himself in order to tailor car set-up to his speciℱfic driving style. 

“Some🦩times the days in the sim are💫 long but I am convinced that this kind of work is worth doing,” the Dutchman told Speedweek. 

“As far as I’m concerned, I don’t want there to be a test driver working in the simula🐻tor like other teams do.

“I want to work on it myself because everyo💯ne has their own driving style. It helps me keep my concentration. 

“After all, there’s not much to do at home other than tr﷽ain on the simulator. Plus it’s something I enjoy.”

Verstappen has even kitted out his private♓ jet with a racing simulator to g🍨et more practice in as he bids to become just the fifth driver in F1 history toಞ win three world titles in a row. 

Red Bu♊ll advisor Helmet Marko revealed to Sport1: “He even had his private plane converted so that he can fly a simulator in the air i🍌n the future. 

“But that’s a good thing, too😼, because Max needs this distracti𒐪on. In any case, it didn’t do him any harm when it came to his two titles!”