Hordes of people are flocking around a billboard. Robed in an assortment of blue and orange caps, the masses savour their moment to pose by the oversized poster. You can spot this Orange Army as they call themselves from afar: the devout fan base of four-time Formula 1 World Champion, Max Verstappen. Saluting the pictured Dutch Lion with selfies and screams, the frenzied enthusiasts are mere hours away from discovering the livery of the 2025 Formula 1 season at the inaugural F1 75 Live broadcast in London, marking the sport’s milestone anniversary.
Verstappen isn’t ready just yet to reveal all. We’re meeting in west London a few hours before, with fans already decorating tube lines in their team kits. Yet, the current kingpin of the track is calm amidst all the pageantry, the composed spirit of a seasoned victor taking each day as it comes. He’s decorated in his own updated livery, a dark blue team kit more understated than the season before, but still bearing a chest that’s healthily decorated with sponsors. The mood is light and Verstappen forthright.
Noticeably so, but it’s easy to forget that racing drivers are adept at hurling themselves around sharp corners at high speeds, just as they are skilled communicators, repeatedly relaying crucial data by radio to their engineers. It makes for a straightforward interlocutor, but a confident one, too. He stands on arrival and offers a firm handshake. While fan-fuelled mania brews just 10 miles away, there’s no spectacle here only a sense of calm normalcy, a peer in age, despite being one of the most celebrated sporting names on the planet.
As the evening spectacle approaches, Verstappen glances at his wrist – not out of a need to track time until lights out, nor out of indifference, but to appreciate a watch clearly destined for him: a TAG Heuer Monaco. “Living in Monaco, [knowing the history of Monaco, and winning Monaco – there’s a lot of Monaco attached to it,” shares the Oracle Red Bull Racing frontman. His life has come to orbit the microstate along the French Riviera, but such is the case with most Formula 1 drivers, given its preferred geographical logistics when touring the globe.
But TAG Heuer’s hallmark model means more than just a symbol of topography for the champion. Sure, it’s a paean tribute to a rich automotive history, considered one of the ultimate racing watches following its release in 1969 in the era of Heuer without the TAG hat tip to Steve McQueen in Le Mans for the revved up fanfare that ensued. At most, it’s a reflection on the soaring arc of his career. “My tastes [with TAG Heuer] have evolved. I started with the smallest, and we ended up going to the Monaco. It’s how my career went, so it’s perfect.
What’s more surprising, a decade of drinking the same carbonated drink, or a pairing between a driver and a watch brand that continues to make sense? The beverage clangs to the table on its return, and Verstappen reveals a Monaco Chronograph Automatic in titanium, often seen fastened to his wrist since its launch in 2023. He thumbs the strap with his hands. “You cannot afford any mistakes in engineering,” he commands the room with a deep, slightly gravelly voice.
Pointing to his wrist he continues, “it all depends on precision. [And] of course that comes down to the manufacturing.” A prodigy of precision, he begins to recount a visit to TAG Heuer’s manufacturer in the esteemed horological locale, La Chaux-de-Fonds. The Red Bull Racing alternative, Milton Keynes’ MK-7 base, turned Swiss. “I tried [the mechanics) myself, it’s very impressive, but my hand is not stable enough to be very precise,” he laughs. It sounds baffling from a man who operates in a world of hundredths of seconds.
“You see how so many little components work together and don’t break at the same time when you’re banging your watch around. So, I had to try, but I was shaking. I have a lot of respect for that, and I guess when they would come to our factory, it’s the same, you know? Just bigger components, same precision.” Victors don’t often admit their defeats, but Verstappen’s the first to make it known which lane is best for him. That said, it is the very same mindset of a watchmaker: pure adrenaline, obsessive detail, and a flavour for risk.
That approach is echoed between these two mechanical worlds, admits Verstappen. “The motivation is going back to the people you’ve worked with already for a long time, and trying to win again.” Speed might just be the key difference between these marvels of engineering and less screaming fans of course, although collector clubs can get loud and proud. Regardless, it’s a long journey to achieve the dream. The prizeman cites his racing beginnings largely due to his father, Jos Verstappen, a former Formula racing driver who encouraged Max into karting from a young age. Paternal influence led him to timely pursuits beyond the track, too. “I think I [got into watches] because my dad was really into them too,” he shares. “He loves it, and I think as a kid, seeing him with different watches on his wrist, he was so passionate about it, and [by] nature you grow into it. I knew what a (brand like TAG Heuer meant for sports, and for Formula 1, but starting together, I got more involved in the history behind it. It’s [been] a very nice insight for me.”
At their very core, watches revolve around a beating movement, but what is it that truly moves this World Champion? “A lot of different things, to be honest,” he pauses. “I’ve never really felt like any Grand Prix has been the same, because it depends on what has happened that weekend, the previous weekend and what happens in your private life. It can all have an impact and an influence. That’s what keeps it from being boring. In the years that I’ve done Formula 1, you come to understand your body a lot more, what you need, what you can do and you cannot do. You apply that and you try to make the best of it in between races combine it all together to make it a success.”
While time waits for no man, Verstappen is keen to chase it. That’s what he reminds himself, cutting through the noise of the hunt. “We have this saying in Dutch, ‘Doe maar gewoon normaal dan ben je gek genoeg.” He translates: “just act normal, because you’re already crazy enough.”
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