Bond-worthy icons, GT3 dream machines and that one obscure French car: F1 drivers and their dream garages, they’re just like ours

Porsche 911 GT3 RS

Name a cooler victory car than a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Still waiting. This is precisely what a fresh-faced 18-year-old Verstappen bought after he won his first Formula 1 race for Red Bull at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix – a win that launched his long, success-dotted journey with Red Bull. He became the youngest ever race-winner and the first Dutch driver to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix; what’s a little 493bhp, £131,296 (at the time), 4.0-litre flat-six homologated gift to self? Though legend has it, in order to buy the GT Silver Metallic GT3 car, he had to seek permission from his father, Jos, first.

As far as significance goes, the 911 991.1 GT3 RS was a particular car as it was the first model to feature the giant wing as we know it — creating 330kg of downforce at the time. It was also the debut of Porsche’s PDK twin-clutch gearbox, though we couldn’t confirm for sure which side of the PDK vs manual debate Verstappen sat on.

Aston Martin DB11

The Aston Martin DB11 is one of a rotating roster of Aston Martins owned or once-owned by the Dutch champ — a beautiful payoff from the Aston Martin x Red Bull Formula 1 partnership that has also seen him be the face of many promotional videos for the British marque.

In 2019, Verstappen was often spotted behind the wheel of the muscular, rear-wheel-drive grand tourer, and helped to push its appeal even higher at a time when its hype was simmering after its success as the real-life version of James Bond’s badass DB10 in Spectre.

The super GT also had two engine options on the table, the flagship 621bhp 5.2-litre V12 twin-turbo, or a lighter 496hp 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbo — we’ll let you imagine which one ended up in Verstappen’s garage….

Aston Martin Vantage

Not long after being seen in the DB11, Verstappen reportedly swapped it for the then-freshly relaunched Aston Martin Vantage. As a man usually quite comfortable driving on his own, he probably didn’t need those extra two seats.

Regardless, when he’s not following it as the F1 safety car, the Vantage has seemingly always held a warm place in the Dutchman’s heart. He even played a part in its development — as seen in this video of him having a lot of fun putting the tail-happy, 503bhp 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 coupe through its paces in an early Verification Prototype model. “It looks very aggressive,” he said. “I think it’s very racy.”

Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

With a mighty V12 that can wake the dead, could you blame anyone for trading in an Aston Martin V8 Vantage for its big brother car, the DBS Superleggera, let alone a world champion race driver? Because that’s what Verstappen did. Like the man himself, it’s a devilish thing, in both style and brutish substance, but the saddest part of this particular story is that, according to reports, Verstappen didn’t get much of a chance to drive it and sent it back with barely 1240 miles on the clock — such is the reality of touring the world as an athlete for most of the year.

Aston Martin Valkyrie

The mighty Aston Martin Valkyrie is where the collection gets really interesting. Famously developed in collaboration with Red Bull and the team’s esteemed Chief Technical Officer and motorsport icon, Adrian Newey, it would be a crime for Verstappen not to have this space-age hypercar in his collection.

Using hybrid technology similar to that found in F1, the Valkyrie in numbers is something to behold: 1160bhp of maximum power (1000bhp at 10,500rpm no less), 664lb-ft of torque, a Cosworth-built naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12. But don’t take our word for it — during his first drive at Silverstone in the British hypercar, Verstappen said it was “a formula one car on the road. It’s as close as you can get.” That answers the question about how he feels about taking work home.

Ferrari Monza SP2

It’s nice to know that the Red Bull x Ferrari rivalry is kept on track because as we all know, Ferrari does make some of the most beautiful and aggressively brilliant cars on the road. Case in point: the Ferrari Monza SP2, allegedly one of a handful of Ferraris that have come through Verstappen’s garage doors.

The Monza SP2 continues Verstappen’s love affair with V12s, as front-mid-mounted is a 6.2-litre naturally aspirated V12, developed from the Ferrari 812 Superfast’s beastly engine, with a maximum output of 808bhp, plus a dash of 0-62mph in 2.9 seconds.

Inspired by the ‘barchettas’ of the ’50s, which were victorious Italian open-top race cars driven by the amateur ‘gentlemen drivers’ of the era and professionals alike, this two-seater, roof and windscreen-less, limited production sportscar is only offered to a select few around the world. Only 499 of these were ever made, and one of them sits in Ferrari’s biggest rival’s garage — of course, the F1 World Champion would have had to drop around £1.4m for the pleasure.

Renault R.S.01

After the essentials — Porsche, Ferrari and a British GT — as every car enthusiast will tell you, the next logical step towards the perfect garage is a weird French car. For some, it’s a Renault Twingo. For others, a Renault R.S. 01.

Never heard of it? You’re not alone —this is a proper esoteric racer. Renault Sport initially built the Renault R.S. 01 in 2014 to replace the Mégane Trophy in its one-make race series, the Renault Sport Trophy. The series only lasted two seasons before it was scrapped, and the car was homologated to race in GT3.

Weighing in at just over 1100kg, it was co-developed with a few partners; the carbon fibre chassis came from Italian race car manufacturer Dallara (known for its involvement in IndyCar and various Formula series); while the 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6 was pulled from within the Renault-Nissan family — it as borrowed from a Nissan GT-R and tuned to produce a very fun 550bhp at 6,800rpm.

Long-time fans of Formula 1 may remember Red Bull’s Renault days (2007-2018), before the Honda engine partnership happened in 2019 — and that’s exactly how the R.S. 01 and Verstappen crossed paths. Apparently, it was love at first sight. In fact, you can watch him here taking his father for a hot lap in the French two-seater around Spa-Francorchamps, praising its precision and noting how similar it feels to a Formula car.