Max Verstappen enters Nurburgring 24 Hours in a Red Bull Mercedes
Max Verstappen will compete in his first 24-hour endurance race this weekend at the iconic Nurburgring, driving a Red Bull-branded Mercedes-AMG GT3.
The four-time Formula 1 world champion has spent the last 12 months preparing for the grueling event with six exploratory outings at the Nordschleife.
Since securing his fourth world title at the end of 2024, the Dutchman has increasingly focused on conquering motorsport’s most prestigious endurance spectacles.
Looking beyond single-seaters
He has long expressed a desire to compete in other categories while still at the absolute peak of his physical and competitive powers.
All the big endurance races I want to do, it’s something that when I was a kid, my dad was doing them.
Max Verstappen
The 28-year-old insists that his legacy in motorsport does not need to be entirely defined by his achievements in Grand Prix racing.
I don’t need to be only an F1 driver, I can also do other things. I’ve done this already for a while, achieved everything I want to achieve so that’s why I want to explore other things and I don’t want to do them when I’m 40 years old. Now is the perfect age to do it.
Max Verstappen
Navigating the ‘Green Hell’
The Nurburgring 24 Hours remains one of the most punishing and highly anticipated calendar fixtures in global motorsport.
A staggering 161 cars spread across 23 different classes will tackle the unrelenting 15.769-mile circuit this year.
The unforgiving track, famously dubbed ‘The Green Hell’ by three-time world champion Sir Jackie Stewart, has not hosted Formula 1 since Niki Lauda’s near-fatal fiery accident in 1976.
Managing multi-class chaos
Competing in the premier GT3 division, the Red Bull Racing star will need to safely navigate through significantly slower traffic on a very narrow ribbon of tarmac.
Nighttime running amplifies the danger of these multi-class overtakes, placing a massive premium on driver focus and spatial awareness.
The 1.333-mile Dottinger Hohe straight, where cars regularly exceed 190mph, will offer the prime overtaking opportunity for the leading pack as they side-draft through the darkness.