There is a popular trivia question among racing fans that goes along the lines of this: Which driver has led the most laps in Formula 1 history without ever scoring a single championship point?
The answer, of course, is Bernd Maylander: the man who – for the past 25 years – has been tasked with patrolling the Safety Car in front of the 20 best drivers in the world.
At every one of F1’s current 24 tracks, you’ll find him waiting in the pit lane, ready at a moment’s notice to speed out onto the circuit while marshals clear up debris or crane a stricken car out of harm’s way.
He has raced against Michael Schumacher, led Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen into their now-iconic final lap battle in 2021, and is known for his dry sense of humor and unflappable skills in the toughest of conditions.
This past weekend, he was in Las Vegas for the latest round of the 2025 World Championship, and the Daily Mail was offered the rare opportunity of joining him for a lap of the famous street track – Strip, Sphere and all.
For this experience – courtesy of Pirelli and Hilton Grand Vacations – he was even behind the wheel of his usual machine: the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series safety car, hot red in color and a cool $325,000 if you want to buy even the most basic version.
Bernd Maylander’s Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series safety car speeds past the Sphere
The Daily Mail was given the chance to experience the speeds of up to 180mph in Las Vegas
It is difficult to put into words quite how fast a road car can travel around this circuit, let alone a Formula 1 car in which drivers can feel forces of five times their body weight against them during cornering and braking.
While I may not have been subjected to quite the same pressure, Maylander wasn’t holding back and with no training – and, admittedly, sub-par fitness levels – I was still pinned to the passenger side window around the most brutal of these 17 corners.
At 150mph down the first straight of the track, the German driver takes his right hand off the wheel as he downplays the speed at which we are traveling.
‘It’s so much faster than you’d expect,’ was my opening gambit, something I expect he’s heard upwards of a thousand times driving Hot Laps for F1 fans over the years.
‘Yeah, but believe me, Formula 1… that’s fast,’ he explains, all the while increasing the speed but keeping the demeanor of a man popping to his local supermarket on a Sunday afternoon.
In 2024, Williams driver Alex Albon reached a barely-believable 229mph (368kph) on the longest 1.2-mile straight of this circuit, the fastest an F1 car has traveled at any race in the last six years.
As Maylander snaps our steering wheel through an S-bend, he speaks about his favorite tracks on the F1 calendar, barely giving a second thought to the wall he is mere inches from brushing beside my head.
At night, the bright lights of Sin City are breathtaking as you race around the track’s 17 corners
The likes of Beyonce and Jay-Z were also given Hot Lap experiences in Vegas at the weekend
If you want to buy even the most basic version of the safety car, it’ll cost you $325,000
Perhaps the most mind-boggling part of the experience (at least for me, I can’t speak for Bernd) came on the second half of the lap, as I allowed myself to take in my surroundings while we sped down the Las Vegas Strip at 180mph.
As though in a race of our own, Maylander sped up alongside a McLaren, breezing past him without even a glance. In our Mercedes, we were the George Russell to his Lando Norris, and this was my one chance at glory on an F1 track.
Slamming on the brakes at the end of the straight, Maylander took me round the final corner of the circuit, slowing to a halt in front of the paddock where the likes of Verstappen, Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were preparing for laps of their own.
Stepping out onto the warm tarmac, I felt grateful: to have experienced a glimpse into this glamorous, fast-paced world, but also to have my feet back on solid ground.
Maylander is said to have driver over 1,400 laps of F1 tracks around the world – some slow, some fast.
While there will certainly be many more memorable for him, this is the one I’ll remember the most.
