“I went to dinner with him”: Connor Zilisch reveals how he met F1 superstar Max Verstappen through SVG’s iRacing friendship

Connor Zilisch revealed that his first meeting with four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen became possible due to Shane van Gisbergen. The teenager had dinner with the Dutchman, as he had been invited by SVG after a Red Bull video shoot was over in Texas.

Verstappen is a revered name in the racing world owing to his massive success in the F1 realm. But, his name is not limited to the F1 sphere as he is seemingly expanding beyond the open-wheel racing boundary, owing to his debut in the GT3 category at the Nurburgring Nordschleife, which he won by a long shot.

His desire to try out the GT3 racing category was seemingly aided by his sim racing venture that he passionately follows. Moreover, the sim racing platform has also aided him in forming some friendships with fellow drivers, and one such driver was SVG.

The two used to race together during the COVID-19 pandemic in the virtual world and have had cordial relations since then. So, when the F1 United States GP rolled up last year, SVG and Max Verstappen were slated to meet.

With Zilisch also being under Red Bull's wings and the Kiwi already having a plan with Verstappen, he decided to bring along the young NASCAR sensation to meet the reigning F1 champion. Subsequently, elaborating about his experience on the Kenny Conversation podcast, he said:

"I went to dinner with him about a year ago in Texas. I went down there to film a video with SVG and the other two Red Bull F1 drivers. At the time it was Yuki [Tsunoda] and Liam [Lawson], and I filmed a video with them." "Shane is actually pretty good friends with Max, because during COVID, when everyone was on iRacing and on simulators messing around when they couldn't race in real life, SVG and Max were teammates on iRacing. So, they became close friends and and I was down there filming with SVG and he invited me to dinner with him and Max, and I got to meet Max and talk to him and get to know him better." (4:30 onwards)

On the other hand, while Connor Zilisch has also seemingly had a fastracked junior racing career, his and Max Verstappen's journey to the top leagues of racing has been starkly different.

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Connor Zilisch wants Max Verstappen to one day take part in a NASCAR race

Max Verstappen is known for his impressive car control. This was recently showcased by his victory in his debut GT3 endurance race at the Nurburgring.

So, with the stock cars being an entirely different discipline themselves, Connor Zilisch shared his hopes of Verstappen one day moving over to NASCAR and racing some stock cars or further delving into sports car racing:

"It's been fun to watch his F1 career and and hopefully one day he'll get over here and get the chance to race either some stock cars or sports cars or something."

Meanwhile, Connor Zilisch will make the step up to full-time Cup Series racing next year with Trackhouse Racing as he will replace Daniel Suarez for the 2026 season.

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Edited by Geetansh Pasricha