The Dutchman was “shocked” and ended up taking a much less powerful BMW
Max Verstappen is probably one of the best drivers in the world, perhaps the best, but there are rules that, no matter how talented he is, they seem to have to abide by. That's exactly how the Dutchman felt this week in the Algarve, when he was banned from renting a Mercedes AMG GT because he was “too young” to drive that car according to Sixt car rental rules – he must be 30 years old. years, while he is still only 26 years old.
The situation, as detailed by The Sun, occurred at the beginning of the week at Faro Airport, where he arrived with a group of 20 friends with the aim of spending some pleasant moments in the south of our country. To do this, Max rented the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve and also reserved 20 cars with the aforementioned rental car, one of which is a Mercedes AMG GT, capable of reaching a speed of 314 km/h. For the Dutchman, it would be completely normal to reach those speeds on the Algarve circuit – especially since he is so well accustomed to them in his Red Bull – but Sixt made no exception and the three-time Formula 1 world champion had to do just that. Settle for a well-equipped, less powerful machine.
“When he arrived at the airport, he was shocked when they told him he couldn't drive the Mercedes he wanted. He's an experienced Formula 1 driver and used to handling powerful cars, so it's unreasonable to think they wouldn't let him.” “Drive that one,” a source told the newspaper. “But those were the rules and we ended up adhering to them.”
Instead of the Mercedes, which the driver's agent ended up driving, Verstappen ended up driving a BMW capable of reaching speeds of 250 km/h.
The Sun also contacted the car rental company, which apologized through an official source to the Dutchman and gave Algarve Airport staff a bit of an ear twister for not making an exception.
“Sixt employees in Portugal only followed the rules that were established for insurance reasons. In order to find a solution for the time being, we have provided Mr. Verstappen with another top-class car. However, there are special situations that may justify a deviation from the rules.” This was One of those cases. We apologize to Mr. Verstappen. He can rent any car he wants at any time. We have no doubt about his ability and experience to drive such cars.”
Written by Fabio Lima
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