December 12, 2021. A blood-curdling last Formula 1 car race which took place in Abu Dhabi, the Arab Emirates between (among others) the best two racers in the world, British Lewis Hamilton and Dutch Max Verstappen. Max Verstappen (24) won the world title. In the short video below you can see André’s reaction to the news. A short fragment from TV program “Shownieuws”, followed by a video from André’s Facebook account. Translation Ineke/John. Technics Ruud.

Max Verstappen (race number 33), was sponsored by Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton (GB) who became second, was sponsored by Mercedes. Look what André did!!

From the front page of the Limburg newspaper of December 14th 2021: Photo credits: Marcel van Hoorn. André Rieu likes a good joke. Yesterday, the orchestra leader suddenly put on his Mercedes, the number 33, which was the race number of Max Verstappen. The flags went out in Rieu Home in Maastricht last Sunday afternoon, when Max Verstappen won the F1 world championship. And Rieu wouldn't be Rieu if he didn't come up with a little joke quickly. That is why the famous orchestra leader of the Johann Strauss Orchestra raced around Maastricht this week in his own “Maxmobile”. With as a tribute to the world champion the number 33 - a reference to the start number that Verstappen used - stuck to his Mercedes. Son Pierre Rieu: „How did we manage to get this done so quickly? It's just a matter of calling and ordering stickers," he jokes on the phone. “We were so full of Max's victory that we wanted to do something with it. That is the advantage of a large network, so that you sometimes can do crazy things.” Pierre Rieu calls Verstappen's victory a grandiose boost for the Netherlands: "We all needed this so much and it does us much good. I would almost say that Max's victory does more than the third anti-corona booster shot."Will André Rieu continue to drive in his 'Maxmobile' for a long time to come? Son Pierre laughs: "Knowing Dad, the stickers will stay on it for a while, he thinks this is great."

With the orchestra members in front of the Studio.

Romano Diederen and Colin Falize.

Note: For seven years in a row Lewis Hamilton, with his Mercedes team, was the world champion, so we understand the British disappointment. For the first time there is a Dutch world champion now and that is celebrated. And André made a joke to the Mercedes team.