Ujjwal “Techno Gamerz” Chaurasia speaks exclusively to TalkEsport about racing Max Verstappen at Silverstone, finding his way through more than 100 karts, representing India at Max vs 100 and living an experience that he admits he had never even imagined possible.
There are experiences that sit somewhere on a career roadmap, however ambitious that roadmap might be, and then there are those so improbable that nobody thinks to put them there in the first place. For Ujjwal Chaurasia, better known to millions of viewers as Techno Gamerz, racing against Max Verstappen at Silverstone belonged emphatically to the latter category.
I caught up with Ujjwal shortly after he stepped out of the kart at Red Bull’s Max vs 100, when the adrenaline of what had just happened had barely had time to settle. There was plenty to discuss: he had shared a circuit with a four-time Formula One world champion, negotiated the extraordinary traffic created by more than 100 karts and finished 39th in an international field in which all three Indian participants eventually placed inside the top 40.
Yet what struck me during our conversation was that Ujjwal seemed considerably less interested in where he had finished than in the sheer improbability of having been there at all. His career was built in virtual worlds, with gaming transforming Ujjwal Chaurasia into Techno Gamerz and eventually into one of India’s most recognisable digital creators, but even that remarkable trajectory had apparently never included the thought that one day he might find himself at Silverstone with Max Verstappen bearing down on his kart.
Red Bull’s Max vs 100 placed Verstappen at the back of an extraordinary 101-kart field and asked him to work his way through 100 challengers drawn from gaming, sport, entertainment and creator culture. The format turned the conventional racing objective on its head because, for most of the field, the challenge was not realistically to beat Verstappen over a traditional race distance but to remain ahead of him for as long as possible.
Verstappen eventually worked his way through the entire field, while India’s three representatives produced a respectable collective showing. According to Red Bull’s official Max vs 100 classification, Shreeman Legend finished 32nd, Jonathan Gaming took 36th and Techno Gamerz placed 39th.
For Ujjwal, however, the finishing position told only part of the story. Watching Verstappen carve through a field on television is one thing; watching the gap disappear while sitting inside a kart yourself provides a rather different appreciation of the speed involved.
“Now I understand what the other drivers must feel”
Q: You’ve watched Max race like the rest of us, but this time you were actually on the circuit with him. What did it feel like when he came past you?
“Now I feel like I understand what the other drivers must feel when Max overtakes them! I got a little taste of that feeling.”
Techno Gamerz
It was a playful observation, but one informed by a perspective that very few people outside professional motorsport will ever acquire. Formula One broadcasts can show Verstappen closing a gap, provide the telemetry behind an overtake and replay the manoeuvre from several angles, whereas Ujjwal experienced the same basic sensation from the considerably less comfortable position of the person being hunted.
He had also been close enough to Verstappen on the circuit to appreciate just how surreal the circumstances had become. The Formula One champion was no longer somebody appearing through a broadcast feed or on a screen; his kart was immediately around him, turning something familiar from television into an experience that suddenly felt very real.
“It felt great driving with him – Max’s kart was literally just ahead of mine. It was crazy.”
Techno Gamerz
That perspective complemented what Shreeman Legend told me separately after Max vs 100. Shreeman had been struck by Verstappen’s reactions and the speed with which he recognised opportunities in traffic, while Ujjwal found himself appreciating the same ability from the other side of the equation: as one of the drivers watching Verstappen rapidly arrive behind him.
A 101-kart traffic problem — and a very Indian solution
Verstappen was not the only complication Ujjwal had to contend with. Putting more than 100 karts into the same event created a challenge that had as much to do with finding space and anticipating the drivers around you as it did with outright speed, particularly when those drivers arrived with vastly different levels of racing experience.
Q: Beyond Max himself, there were more than 100 karts involved in the event. What was it actually like trying to make your way through that much traffic?
Ujjwal did not need long to find an appropriately Indian comparison.
“You know who would do well in a race like this? Mumbai’s auto-rickshaw drivers!”
Techno Gamerz
The suggestion came with a laugh, although anyone who has watched an auto-rickshaw identify a seemingly nonexistent opening in Mumbai traffic could probably understand the logic behind it.
“There was so much traffic out there, and they know exactly how to find their way through it. I think they’d have finished inside the top 20!”
Techno Gamerz
The joke also captured something that the spectacle of Max vs 100 could easily obscure. A crowded circuit required the challengers to judge gaps, react to unpredictable movement and make decisions quickly, all while knowing that one of the finest racing drivers of his generation was steadily working through the field behind them.
That traffic also made Verstappen’s eventual achievement rather more striking. In Red Bull’s official account of Max vs 100, Verstappen completed his pursuit of the entire field after starting at the back, turning what began as an intentionally chaotic creator race into another demonstration of how efficiently an elite driver can process traffic.
“This is the kind of experience you can’t buy with money”
Ujjwal’s career has already taken him a considerable distance from the circumstances in which he began creating gaming videos. As Techno Gamerz grew into one of India’s largest gaming personalities, the opportunities around him expanded accordingly, but Silverstone appeared to have crossed a boundary even he had never contemplated.
Q: Gaming has already given you access to some extraordinary experiences, but where does racing Max Verstappen at Silverstone rank among them?
“I’ll always want to thank Red Bull because this is the kind of experience you can’t buy with money.”
Techno Gamerz
What followed was perhaps the most revealing answer of our conversation because Ujjwal did not describe Max vs 100 as the fulfilment of a long-held ambition. The possibility had apparently sat beyond even the ambitions he had allowed himself to imagine.
“I couldn’t even have imagined this – actually, it wasn’t even a dream of mine, because I never imagined something like this could happen.”
Techno Gamerz
There is an important distinction in that observation. A dream generally begins with the ability to picture an outcome, whereas Ujjwal was describing an opportunity that had existed outside the boundaries of what he thought a career built around gaming might eventually make possible. His journey to Silverstone was therefore not simply the fulfilment of an ambition conceived years earlier, but evidence that the possibilities surrounding a successful gaming career in India have expanded faster than even some of the people at the centre of that transformation expected.
Three Indians inside the top 40 at Max vs 100
The Indian story at Silverstone extended beyond Ujjwal. Shreeman Legend, Jonathan Gaming and Techno Gamerz all finished inside the top 40, with Shreeman emerging as the highest-ranked Indian in 32nd position, followed by Jonathan in 36th and Ujjwal in 39th.
Q: India had three representatives here and all three of you finished inside the top 40. What did it mean to see the Indian contingent perform together on an international stage like this?
“At the end of the day, three of us came here from India and made an impact. All three of us finished inside the top 40, and it was great to see three Indian flags up there.”
Techno Gamerz
The satisfaction did not prevent Ujjwal from immediately moving the target. Like any good gamer confronted with a completed objective, his instinct was to increase the difficulty rather than spend too long celebrating what had already been achieved.
“With some more practice, maybe next time we can make that the top 15.”
Techno Gamerz
That optimism was shared, in a slightly different form, by Shreeman, whose P32 made him India’s highest finisher at Silverstone. In our accompanying TalkEsport interview, Shreeman discussed what racing Verstappen taught him about the reactions and decision-making required at the highest level of motorsport, giving the Indian contingent two very different perspectives on the same extraordinary afternoon.
From virtual worlds to Silverstone
The presence of Ujjwal, Jonathan and Shreeman at Silverstone also said something about how far India’s gaming and creator ecosystem has travelled. Gaming personalities once occupied a relatively self-contained corner of digital entertainment, whereas its largest creators now increasingly find themselves alongside mainstream athletes, international sporting properties and entertainment figures.
Max vs 100 made that convergence unusually literal. Ujjwal did not arrive at Silverstone to play a racing game, operate a simulator or simply meet Verstappen for a piece of creator content; he put on a helmet, climbed into a kart and joined the same field as a four-time Formula One world champion.
That distinction seemed to matter considerably more to him than the number 39 beside his name on the final classification. When we spoke immediately afterwards, what remained was the disbelief of someone whose career had carried him into a situation that he had never thought to include among his ambitions, despite already experiencing the kind of opportunities that accompany becoming one of India’s largest gaming creators.
There is a wider significance to that journey because India’s gaming industry has spent years expanding beyond the boundaries traditionally assigned to it, with creators increasingly crossing into mainstream entertainment, sport and global brand culture. At Silverstone, that progression was no longer theoretical: three Indian gaming personalities were sitting on a grid at one of motorsport’s most recognisable venues, preparing to be chased around a circuit by Max Verstappen.
For Ujjwal, however, the significance of the afternoon was ultimately much more personal. Gaming had already taken him into worlds he could once only experience through a screen, but Max vs 100 carried him somewhere he had never thought to imagine, let alone place on a list of career ambitions. Years after building Techno Gamerz inside virtual worlds, Ujjwal Chaurasia found himself at Silverstone racing one of the greatest drivers of his generation, and perhaps the most revealing thing he could say afterwards was that even dreaming about it would first have required believing that something like this was possible.
