Earlier this week, the Dutchman raced againstꦿ ice speedway legend Franky Zorn on the Austrian slopes in Red Bull’s championship-winning 2012 RB8 car, which was fitted with specially designed Pirelli spiked tyres💧 for the event. 

It marked t♔he first time Verstappen has used the #1 since confirming h𒁃e would swap his permanent #33 for the number reserved exclusively for the world champion for his title defence in 2022. 

Verstappen will be the first driver t🐷o sport the #1 since Sebastian Vettel ran it during his final season with Red Bull in 2014.&☂nbsp;

Sev🥂en-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has elected to stick with his personal #44, while the only other world champion in the V6 hybrid era, Nico Rosberg, retired immediately after winning the title in 2016. 

"How many times do you get🐓 the opportunity to swap?,” Verstappen said after his show run. “Number 1 is the best number out there so, for me, it was very straightforward to pi💞ck the number 1.

“Hopefully, of course, that number 33 doesn't come b🧸ack next ye🍸ar!”

Verstappen pipped Hamilton to clinch his maiden world title in controversial circumsta🍰nces at last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which concluded an epic season-long battle for supremacy between the two drivers. 

The 24-year-old wiဣll get his first taste of the car he hopes will take him to a second successive world championship when F1 pre-season testing begins in Barcelona on February 23-25. 

"It looks a bit different, but at the end of the day it's stilꩵl a Formula 1 car," Verstappen added. 

"At testing we can do a lot of laps and get a lot of information about the car, which is import✃ant. I'm ꦜlooking forward to it."