What Sim Rig Does Max Verstappen Use? F1 Pro Rigs 2026

Max Verstappen races sims between grands prix, and his sim rig is not one rig. Rig-profile sites document a Leo Bodnar base and Heusinkveld pedals in his Monaco setup, plus a separate Simucube rig that travels to race weekends with his team.

None of that hardware is sold on Amazon. So this breakdown does two jobs: it collects what F1 drivers are documented to run, then names the part you can order today that behaves the same way one tier down.

Our top pick: MOZA R12 V2 Wheelbase

The wheelbase decides whether a rig reads like a car or like a spring. 12 Nm is the first tier where a formula rim loads and unloads the way the pro bases do, and the MOZA R12 V2 is the version of that you can order today.

MOZA R12 V2 Direct Drive Sim Racing Wheelbase 12Nm Force Feedback Base

$399.99$429.99

Buy the MOZA R12 V2 Wheelbase on Amazon

Quick picks

What Max Verstappen's sim rig actually runs

Start with Verstappen, because the answer is two answers. The permanent setup in Monaco is reported to run a Leo Bodnar SimSteering2 wheelbase at around 26 Nm with Heusinkveld Sim Pedals Ultimate+ bolted into a Playseat F1 Ultimate. The rig that travels with the team is standardised on Simucube instead, a 2 Pro base with the ActivePedal brake in a Sim-Lab P1-X frame that reportedly breaks down and rebuilds in under an hour. Same driver, two philosophies: one built for feel, one built for a flight case.

Lando Norris went a different route and built the hardware. Cool Performance, the company he runs with his brother, made the cockpits in his home setup, including a single-seater frame and a GT variant, with hydraulic pedals of their own and a triple 32-inch screen array plus a fourth panel for timing. The wheelbase underneath is the same Leo Bodnar unit Verstappen uses at home.

George Russell's profile lists a Simucube 2 Ultimate with Heusinkveld Ultimate pedals in a Sim-Lab P1-X, which is close to Verstappen's travel spec at a higher torque tier. Charles Leclerc is the outlier: reports put him on Fanatec Podium hardware with a ClubSport F1 rim across two Playseat cockpits, one for open-wheel and one for rally and drifting, fed by a 49-inch Samsung panel.

Look past the brand names and the pattern is boring, which is the useful part. Every rig is high-torque direct drive, every brake reads pressure rather than travel, every cockpit is rigid enough that the base cannot twist it, and every screen setup is wide enough to see an apex you are not pointed at. The same four priorities show up in the rigs the top iRacing pros run, which is a decent sign they are the priorities and not a fashion.

How we picked the Amazon equivalents

The pro parts are direct-sale. Leo Bodnar, Heusinkveld, Simucube, PSE and Cool Performance do not sell through Amazon, so a shopping list of the same parts would be a shopping list you cannot use. Every pick below was chosen to reproduce a behaviour instead of a badge.

That means matching mechanism first. Direct drive stays direct drive rather than dropping to a belt base. A load-cell brake stays a load cell rather than a potentiometer. A rigid cockpit stays rigid enough for the torque in front of it. Where the pro tier wins is headroom, not category, and headroom is the cheapest thing to give up. If you want the wider field of candidates at each torque tier, our direct drive wheel picks for iRacing and Assetto Corsa covers the ladder below this one.

The order of spend matters more than any single part. Base first, because it is the only component that changes what the car tells you. Brake second, because braking is where consistency is won. Cockpit third, because the first two are wasted without it. Rim fourth, screen last.

What not to copy from a pro rig

Do not copy the torque number. A 26 Nm base bolted to a flexing desk delivers less usable feel than 12 Nm on a frame that holds still, because the flex arrives as delay and delay is what you cannot drive around. Rigidity is the multiplier on every Newton metre you buy.

Do not mix ecosystems either. Quick releases are proprietary, so a Fanatec formula rim does not mount to a MOZA base, and the replica ladder only assembles if you buy it inside one family. And do not start with the screen. A wide panel in front of a soft rig flatters nothing. If the cockpit is the weak link, fix that first with something from our sim racing cockpit picks.

Wheelbase: MOZA R12 V2 (12 Nm Direct Drive)

This is the part the whole pro-rig question is really about. The drivers run 25 to 26 Nm workshop-grade bases; this is the same motor type with the peak force scaled to a room you also sleep near.

MOZA R12 V2 Direct Drive Sim Racing Wheelbase 12Nm Force Feedback Base

$399.99$429.99

Buy the MOZA R12 V2 Wheelbase on Amazon

Specs

What it does well

12 Nm is enough torque to feel the front axle take load and then give it back, which is the signal that tells you where the grip went. Below roughly 8 Nm that transition gets smoothed into a general heaviness. Above 12 Nm you are mostly buying headroom you will clip anyway on a folding cockpit.

The 21-bit magnetic encoder is the less obvious half. It splits each rotation into over two million steps, so small corrections at the limit stay legible instead of blurring into the main force. MOZA's NexGen 4.0 force feedback runs iRacing's 360 Hz telemetry rate, and the aluminium housing with active temperature management keeps output steady through a long stint rather than fading as the motor heats.

What you give up

You are giving up roughly half the peak torque of the Leo Bodnar and Simucube bases in the driver rigs, and there is no honest way around that. In practice the ceiling you hit first is the mount, not the motor.

It is PC only, so console sim racers are out. The MOZA quick release also means your next rim is a MOZA rim, which is fine while you stay in the ecosystem and annoying the day you want something exotic.

Who it's for

The right base for a first direct-drive rig built around F1 and GT sims, for someone who wants the pro mechanism without pro-tier mounting hardware to hang it from.

Steering wheel: MOZA CS V2P (13-inch)

The rims on the driver rigs come from PSE and Ascher Racing, formula wheels built in small batches. The Amazon-side equivalent is a compact flat rim with proper paddles.

MOZA CS V2P Sim Racing Steering Wheel 13-inch for PC, Black

$228.99

Buy the MOZA CS V2P Steering Wheel on Amazon

Specs

What it does well

13 inches is the useful part. Single-seater steering is fast and small, and a 300 mm GT wheel makes fast corrections feel vague by comparison. The aluminium face and back plates keep the rim from flexing when you load it, which matters more at 12 Nm than most spec sheets admit.

The paddles are forged carbon on a contactless photoelectric sensor, so shifts register without the mushy overtravel of a cheap microswitch and there is no contact surface to wear out. Six programmable buttons, two joysticks and two rotary encoders cover pit limiter, brake bias and the rest without reaching for the keyboard. The 10 RGB beads run as shift lights once you configure them in MOZA Pit House.

What you give up

There is no screen and no dual clutch, so launch procedures stay manual. Button density is far below a real F1 wheel, which is a fair trade at this tier but worth knowing if you came here from photos of Verstappen's rim.

It mounts on the MOZA quick release and nothing else. Buy it as part of the ecosystem decision, not as a standalone rim.

Who it's for

Anyone pairing a MOZA base who wants a formula-shaped wheel they will not outgrow in a season of open-wheel racing.

Pedals: MOZA CRP2 (200 kg Load Cell)

If you copy one thing from these rigs, copy the brake. Heusinkveld Ultimate+ sits under both Verstappen's and Russell's setups, and the CRP2 uses the same working principle.

MOZA CRP2 Load Cell Pedals (Throttle+Brake) Driving Sim Racing Pedal, Black

$369.99

Buy the MOZA CRP2 Load Cell Pedals on Amazon

Specs

What it does well

The brake reads pressure through a 200 kg load cell rather than measuring how far the pedal travelled. That is the whole difference: your leg reproduces force far more reliably than it reproduces distance, so threshold braking becomes repeatable instead of a guess that happens to work on lap three.

Four damping-block hardnesses at 55, 70, 80 and 98 let you set the pedal anywhere from road-car soft to formula stiff, and MOZA quotes 125 brake-feel combinations across the adjustment range. The frame is CNC aluminium with a carbon fibre heel plate, and adjustment is tool-free, which matters because you will move the brake stop three times in the first week.

What you give up

It is a two-pedal set. Throttle and brake only, so anything needing a clutch means adding one later. For F1 and most GT racing that is not a real loss.

You are not getting hydraulic damping, and you are certainly not getting the active force feedback brake Verstappen's team has run since 2024. A 200 kg load cell also needs a cockpit that will not slide, which is the next line item on this list.

Who it's for

The upgrade for a driver whose lap times are fine on one lap and scattered over ten, which is almost always a braking-consistency problem rather than a base problem.

Cockpit: Playseat Challenge (Foldable)

Playseat is the brand under both Verstappen's home rig and Leclerc's, just several tiers up. The Challenge is the version that fits a room you also live in.

PLAYSEAT Challenge Racing Simulator Cockpit | Foldable & Adjustable | for High Performance Sim Racing | Compact & Flexible | Supports All Steering Wheels & Pedals | for PC and Console

$229.00

Buy the Playseat Challenge on Amazon

Specs

What it does well

It folds flat in about ten seconds with the wheel and pedals still attached, and the whole thing weighs 9 kg, so one person moves it without a plan. That is the difference between a rig you use and a rig you resent.

The seating position is low and reclined, closer to a single-seater than the chair-and-desk setup most people start on, which changes where your legs meet the pedals and how the brake loads. It takes drivers from 120 to 220 cm and 20 to 122 kg, so it fits households rather than one person, and the plates take most wheels and pedals on the market.

What you give up

A fabric sling seat flexes under 12 Nm in a way an aluminium profile rig does not. You will feel the frame move on heavy loads, and that movement is force you paid for and did not receive.

There is no triple-monitor mounting, and the pedal plate hangs rather than bolting to a rigid rail, so very hard braking can shift it. If your rig can live somewhere permanent, an aluminium profile frame is the better answer at the same wheel tier.

Who it's for

A rig that has to share a living room, bought by someone who would rather put the money into the base and the brake than into the frame around them.

Display: Samsung 49-inch Odyssey G9

Norris runs a triple 32-inch array with a fourth timing screen, and Leclerc is reported to use a 49-inch Samsung. One super-ultrawide is the single-screen version of that idea.

Samsung 49” Odyssey G9 Series DQHD 1000R Curved Gaming Monitor, 1ms(GtG), VESA DisplayHDR 1000, 240Hz, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, Height Adjustable Stand, Ultrawide Screen, LS49CG954ENXZA, 2024

$899.99$1,299.99

Buy the Samsung 49-inch Odyssey G9 on Amazon

Specs

What it does well

The DQHD width gives back the peripheral vision a single 27-inch panel throws away, and peripheral vision is where braking references live. You see the apex before you are pointed at it, which is most of what triples buy you.

240 Hz keeps the image readable through fast direction changes rather than smearing them, and the 1 ms response and DisplayHDR 1000 rating hold up in the dark-cockpit, bright-track lighting sim racing throws at a panel. One display also means no bezel gaps down your sightline and no afternoon spent configuring surround.

What you give up

It is not a true triple array. The wrap angle is narrower, so hairpins still leave you looking at the edge of the panel rather than through the corner.

The 1000R curve exaggerates geometry in titles without proper ultrawide support, and the panel wants desk depth plus a rig that can sit behind it. On a folding cockpit that is a room-layout problem before it is a hardware one.

Who it's for

A single-screen rig where a triple mount is not practical, and a driver who would rather see the corner than own the last few degrees of wrap.

Bottom line

If you are building the rig from nothing, start with the MOZA R12 V2 Wheelbase and add the rest as you go. If your braking is inconsistent, the MOZA CRP2 Load Cell Pedals fix more lap time than any base upgrade will. If the rig has to fold away between sessions, the Playseat Challenge is the compromise worth making. If you already have a solid base and pedals, the Samsung 49-inch Odyssey G9 is the next thing you will notice.

What you cannot buy is the part that makes the driver rigs work, which is a frame rigid enough that nothing moves except the wheel. Spend there before you spend on torque.

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