m. 🏎️🏛️🐅

"Kimi skipped F3 just like Max"

Kimi pre-F1:

4 years of single seater experience (F4 2021-2022, Formula Regional in F3 cars 2023, F4 2024)

115 single seater races + 2 GT3 races (wikipedia)

~9000 KM of empty track private testing in the previous year's F1 car (planetf1)

Max pre-F1:

1 year of single seater experience (Florida Winter Series and F3 in 2014)

47 single seater races (wikipedia)

Max didn't equal the number of single seater races Kimi had participated in pre-F1 until mid 2018: 47 (F3) + 19 (2015) + 21 (2016) + 20 (2017) + the first 8 races of 2018. (formula1)

At the beginning of 2026, Kimi was at 139 single seater races. Race 139 for Max is mid 2019, specifically Hockenheim: 47 (F3) + 19 (2015) + 21 (2016) + 20 (2017) + 21 (2018) + the first 11 races of 2019. (formula1)

But what Mastrocola particularly values ​​is the personal connection he builds with the athletes. He likes to treat them to his homemade, freshly pressed apple juice. Verstappen swears by it. “Max drinks almost ten bottles of it in a weekend. And he wants chips from me. Those are his meals.” But Mastrocola is also the superstars’ first point of contact, motivator, and confidant in other ways as well. When Vonn suffered a painful crash in the downhill race in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the South Tyrolean greeted her at the finish line and offered her words of encouragement. “I’ve been looking after Lindsey for six years now, and a deep friendship develops. She has to trust me; that’s part of my job.”