There’s a trivia nugget that racing enthusiasts love to ponder: Which Formula 1 driver has led the most laps yet never scored a single championship point?
The answer is none other than Bernd Maylander, the man who has spent the last quarter of a century steering the Safety Car ahead of the world’s top 20 drivers.
At all of F1’s 24 current circuits, Maylander is stationed in the pit lane, poised to leap into action whenever debris needs clearing or a stranded car must be removed from the track.
Maylander has shared the track with legends like Michael Schumacher and has guided stars like Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen during their epic final lap showdown in 2021. Known for his dry wit and calm demeanor, he handles the toughest conditions with ease.
Recently, he found himself in Las Vegas for the latest round of the 2025 World Championship, where the Daily Mail seized a rare chance to accompany him for a lap around the iconic street circuit, complete with the Strip and Sphere.
This unique experience, made possible by Pirelli and Hilton Grand Vacations, saw him behind the wheel of his usual ride: the striking red Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series safety car, priced at a cool $325,000 for even its most basic model.
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.
