Why Max Verstappen doing the Nurburgring 24 Hours might be optimistic for F1, motorsport and himself

Max Verstappen’s efforts on the Nurburgring Nordschleife have rightly attracted lots of consideration in latest weeks – and it’s good for Components 1 and motorsport as a complete, in addition to the Dutchman himself.

Now that he has the required DMSB Allow A, Verstappen can contest a Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie race in a full-house GT3 automobile. And, extra importantly, he can do likewise within the Nurburgring 24 Hours, a race that the 27-year-old has expressed an curiosity in.

Whereas some may argue that he ought to be targeted on F1, Verstappen’s performances in 2025 haven’t precisely suffered. Certainly, Michael Schumacher was considered one of a number of drivers to level out the potential advantages of racing outdoors F1, together with his Group C sportscar outings making him a more-rounded driver even earlier than he received his massive break.

Experiencing totally different automobiles and circuits can solely be a very good factor relating to including to a driver’s repertoire or skillset. It offers them extra within the psychological library from which they will draw when required.

There’s additionally a fallacy amongst some followers that present drivers aren’t as versatile and adaptable as their predecessors – that they might by some means wrestle in different automobiles.

It’s true that few present F1 drivers try different classes – their schedules are sometimes too full for that – however that doesn’t imply they wouldn’t be any good at them in the event that they tried. Fernando Alonso demonstrated as a lot together with his aggressive 2017 Indianapolis 500 exhibiting, plus his two Le Mans victories and World Endurance title with Toyota.

Anybody who has seen present stars grapple with older equipment, with no downforce, H-pattern gearboxes and crossply tyres at occasions such because the Goodwood Revival will even know that high drivers are high drivers regardless of the automobile beneath them.

Verstappen’s Nurburgring lap document tempo in his Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 take a look at, regardless of the actual specification of the automobile on the time, exhibits one thing comparable. And, let’s be trustworthy, it’s fairly cool.

On the one hand, this shouldn’t be a shock. F1 is the top of the game and four-time world champion Verstappen is already one of many greats. However on the opposite, it’s price remembering how motorsport has modified since F1 drivers repeatedly competed elsewhere within the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties.

Lots of the drivers of the day appeared in several disciplines. In different phrases, if Jim Clark was quicker than Roy Salvadori in a grand prix automobile, it’s not likely a shock that he’d be faster in a touring automobile, GT or sportscar.

However now there are a lot of specialists at a excessive degree throughout totally different championships. A few of these drivers received very near entering into F1 themselves, ought to have accomplished, or made it to F1 earlier than heading elsewhere. Suppose folks resembling six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen or sportscar ace Sebastien Buemi. Rocking up and beating them at their very own video games, within the types of automobiles they know inside out, shouldn’t be a given, even for F1’s elite.

GT3, which is now 20 years previous, in all probability has extra skilled drivers on the earth than some other class. With Steadiness of Efficiency in idea maintaining the automobiles evenly matched (4 totally different marques have received the 24 Hours over the previous 5 editions), producers have employed one of the best professionals they will. The margins are normally measured in hundredths or thousandths of a second.

#980 Lionspeed GP, Porsche Cayman GT4 – Max Verstappen, Chris Lulham

Photograph by: Nürburgring GmbH

There’s not a complete heap of time left within the automobiles for anybody – Verstappen included – to all of a sudden discover. As with F1 itself, it’s all about stitching collectively small positive factors and being constant.

Maybe one space during which Verstappen will must be cautious is coping with visitors, which shall be nearly fixed. Among the drivers within the 24 Hours are amateurs or these with far much less expertise than the 225-time grand prix starter. Verstappen might discover himself in hassle if he tries an unorthodox transfer; he can’t depend on everybody having an Alonso or Lewis Hamilton-level of consciousness to keep away from shunts like he might have had on the Hungaroring this 12 months.

However Verstappen is wise sufficient to know that. His wheel-to-wheel antics have all the time been about intentionally enjoying with the road of acceptability quite than an absence of potential to stay to it. He’ll certainly dial it again for an occasion that’s for enjoyment quite than a world title.

Verstappen dabbling in GT racing can also be good for the opposite branches of the game. F1 has grown so massive as to dwarf the curiosity in different elements of motorsport. New followers, who’ve maybe come to F1 through Drive to Survive, won’t even have heard of GT3 or (perish the thought!) the Nordschleife. However now they may.

Curiosity in Indycar racing spiked when reigning world champion Nigel Mansell ventured throughout the pond for 1993. Autosport’s personal on-line visitors confirmed how a lot curiosity there was in Alonso’s Le Mans debut in 2018, although Toyota had no significant opposition.

Verstappen racing in GT3 might widen the horizons of some F1 followers, as soon as once more show the standard of high grand prix drivers and improve the reigning world champions CV, even when he’s solely doing it for enjoyable. It’s a win-win-win, with one caveat.

#980 Lionspeed GP, Porsche Cayman GT4 – Max Verstappen

Photograph by: Jan Brucke/VLN

Because of the character of the best circuit on the earth and the massive tempo disparities between the a number of courses there, the Nurburgring 24 Hours is considered one of fashionable motorsport’s extra dangerous endeavours. No one desires to see a repeat of the form of crash Robert Kubica suffered within the 2011 Ronde di Andora Rally.

Such incidents, and the 1985 deaths of rising F1 stars Stefan Bellof and Manfred Winkelhock in sportscar crashes, have understandably generally induced F1 staff bosses to be lower than keen about their drivers indulging in extra-curricular motorsport.

However the sport is safer than it as soon as was and Crimson Bull is doing every part it may to maintain Verstappen pleased, so it’s not a shock it hasn’t stopped these GT3 outings. The chance of Verstappen leaving the staff might be increased than of him getting injured.

So, hat’s off to Verstappen for doing one thing totally different. Subsequent 12 months’s Nurburgring 24 Hours doesn’t conflict with an F1 spherical, so let’s hope he takes the plunge. And, if it goes properly, maybe the Dutchman ought to think about taking over the problem of the triple crown that Alonso hasn’t fairly managed but…