Max Verstappen’s Overtake in the Nürburgring explained | 24 Hours of Nürburgring

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Look at this clip and tell me if you can understand what Max is trying to do here.

[00:00:04]And if you can't, don't worry about that, I'll explain. This technique is called the side draft and it basically works like this. Imagine your Max Verstappen in the Nürburgring 24 hours trying to go for an overtake down the straight. You get in your opponent's slipstream, closing on them, and once you're right on their bumper, you pull to the side, but not by a lot. You position your car very close to their rear panel, not for long, just for a second or two, and that magically slows them down, letting you overtake them with ease. I mean, obviously it's not magic, it's aerodynamics and this is what's happening at that moment. I'm oversimplifying a bit, but when you put your front splitter alongside your opponent's rear panel, you take all the air in front of your car, speed it up by a bit, and push it directly onto your opponent's rear wing. And when there's extra air hitting the rear wing while on a straight, it produces more drag and in turn slows their car down. A very important thing to keep in mind though, once the other car starts slowing down, you need to get away from them as quickly as possible cuz if you don't, they'd have the opportunity to do the exact same thing right back to you. Now, full disclosure, I cannot 100% state that this is exactly what Max was trying to do in that situation cuz there's just no way to know unless Max himself talks to me. But if it was what he was trying to do, I'd say that he executed it perfectly. And the effect of it is also pretty subtle in these cars, I'll tell you why. Side drafting as a concept is very prevalent in series [music] like NASCAR or the Aussie Supercars cuz the rear wing is the main aero element on those cars and adding more drag to it slows down the car significantly. GT3 cars, when compared, have a lot more aero parts, so the effect itself is not as drastic as it is in those series. And I'm pretty sure you understand why it almost never happens in Formula 1. If you like simple explanations of technical concepts like this, follow along. Cheers.