Max Verstappen doesn’t wait for Formula 1 and goes into endurance
Formula 1 stationary? Not bad, if your name is Max Verstappen. The Red Bull Dutchman, fresh off his victory at Monza obtained only last Sunday, less than a week before the Italian Grand Prix d’Italia will be back on track. He will not do so, however, in the discipline that has already made him a four-time world champion, but in a covered-wheel race car and, moreover, in an endurance race.
This is the GT4 class, which this weekend sees its protagonists take to the track for an official round of the NLS (Nürburgring Endurance Series) championship. And it is precisely the historic German circuit that will welcome Verstappen, who, in order to participate in the competition, had to take a practical driving test, complete with an instructor. So he also took and passed the practical test, which will allow him to officially register for the championship.
While the Formula 1 engines are turned off, then, Verstappen will race for the Lionspeed GP team and take to the track in a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS. And, literally, it will not be a walk in the park: the seventh round of the NLS championship will in fact consist of two races, each lasting a full four hours. And that’s not all: based on its performance, Sunday could bring enough license to move up to GT3 and – potentially – run the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2026.
All this just days after the win in Monza, which was particularly significant for Verstappen, who took his third win of the season with a masterful performance. Despite a Red Bull that was technically inferior to the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, the formidable Dutchman managed to dominate the race after reclaiming the lead on lap four, then putting himself on the safe side with a series of fast laps. A victory that once again confirmed the talent of the four-time world champion, who is able to maximize the potential of his single-seater even when it does not represent the most competitive car on the track.
Particularly striking was the podium moment at Monza, where Verstappen has received warm applause from Ferrari fans. As the driver himself had explained: “This is the first time I have heard so much cheering, the other two times I had won I’d done it by beating Ferraris and therefore I was not so cheered. Definitely a great day for us”. A new and special feeling with the Italian public, which had already manifested itself in Imola and that inevitably fuels the speculation about his possible future in red.
In the meantime, however, about 50,000 will flock to see him at the Nürburgring, as confirmed by the Dutch of ‘De Telegraaf’. But there’s more: the license would potentially give Verstappen a way to officially pilot his first Ferrari racing car, the 296 GT3. A’hypothesis that would in turn accentuate rumors of the Dutchman’s possible future move to Maranello, still all to be proven. For the time being, however, this double commitment at the same time puts him on a path that before him had been traveled only by drivers of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s: trying his hand at endurance racing in the time intervals left free by the Formula 1 calendar.
