Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen secured his third Monaco Grand Prix victory on Sunday, briefly pausing a 45-hour fantasy audiobook to navigate the final two corners of the Circuit de Monaco. The reigning world champion reportedly pressed a custom toggle on his steering wheel to halt playback just before crossing the finish line, concluding a dominant drive 12 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Telemetry data provided by the FIA confirmed that Verstappen listened to chapters 14 through 31 of a sprawling medieval epic at 1.5x speed while leading the pack through the notoriously tight street circuit. Broadcasts of the team's radio communications occasionally captured the muffled voice of an English narrator describing a complex system of agrarian trade tariffs whenever Verstappen opened his mic to acknowledge pit board intervals.
We fully support Max's in-cockpit media consumption, as the narrative tension of a fictional trade dispute keeps his baseline heart rate within our targeted operational window.
Following the podium ceremony, Verstappen declined to answer reporters' questions regarding his tire management through the hairpin, telling the press pool he needed to return to the motorhome immediately to find out if the protagonist successfully negotiated a regional grain treaty.