F1
Haystacks, home-made vehicles, crazy obstacles – it's Oracle Red Bull Racing against Visa CashApp RB in the soapbox race of the year in Montreal. Find out who won right here.
Imagine a race that challenges the most fearless drivers around. A race where you build the best possible car to account for aerodynamics, gravity and speed, all to make it from start to finish. A race where reaction time is paramount and, in many ways, simply crossing the finish can be considered a win.
No, we’re not talking F1. Well, not exactly. In this race, Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez, Yuki Tsnuoda and Daniel Ricciardo put their skills to the ultimate test as they raced down Montreal's Olympic Park in personalized soapbox racer for the latest round of the epic, globe-trotting (Un)serious Race Series.
Ahead of the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix, the Oracle Red Bull racing and Visa Cashapp RB team-mates converged on the Olympic Village in Montreal to see who had what it takes to cross the finish first.
The soapbox course was designed with a series of challenges for the drivers to overcome, from navigating through a snowstorm, making it past the great Canadian crossing and surviving a chicane and a series of rollers. The drivers gave it their all to try and secure the top qualifying time.
But they weren’t the only world-class athletes at the track, which is no surprise considering F1 races draw the biggest names in pretty much, well, everything.
Canadian snowboarding legend Craig McMorris and cliff diver Molly Carlson were also hanging around the grid as hosts, getting some reactions from the drivers and keeping the crowd entertained.
A soapbox (even a custom-made one) drives a little differently to an F1 car. Before qualifying, Checo and Verstappen were testing out the brakes, looking a little unsure and trying to figure out how to get the most out of it.
In the other paddock, Ricciardo was just being his usual self, telling Molly Carlson: "It’s probably the greatest day of my career."
When asked about the steering, he gave a few insights, saying, "Steering was interesting because it was really heavy, but also really, really sensitive. So, you kind of needed a bit of force to get the wheel turned and then being really smooth was tricky with it, so that was a challenge."
Each driver put down a solid run for their qualifying time in their custom soapboxes, complete with names, race numbers and team liveries, but it was Verstappen (shocker) who took pole. Daniel Ricciardo qualified in second, with Pérez in third and Yuki Tsunoda fourth, setting up a Verstappen vs Ricciardo final.
In the end, it seemed height and weight were the key deciding factors for soapbox pure performance. As such, the 1.81m-tall Verstappen flew downhill the quickest, with 1.79m Ricciardo in second, with Pérez following closely behind.
"I've never done a soapbox race before. Zero horsepower was scarier than 700 horsepower," said Ricciardo. "We had the weight discussion at the beginning and said that Max would have the advantage over me, and then Checo and then Yuki – and we were right!"
In the end, Verstappen came out on top as the race winner: “You never know what’s going to happen. It’s always so close with the times, but it felt good. When I heard the time from qualifying I felt confident for the final."
Want to watch how everything went down? Hit play on the video above to see just how close the drivers were, who had the best soapbox technique and more.
Soapbox races are not new to Montreal, with the last Red Bull Soapbox Race in Canada held in 2015 near Victoria Square. Red Bull Soapbox Race will also be coming back to Canada this summer on June 22 to Edmonton, where 60 teams will be competing in their homemade soapboxes for a chance to be the hero of the day.
