Max Verstappen has expressed interest in racing in Super GT, but admits the lack of a true blue-riband event makes a guest appearance difficult to justify.
The four-time Formula 1 champion turned his first laps in a Nissan Z GT500 car at Fuji Speedway last month, as part of a promotional shoot organised by his employer Red Bull.
It marked only his second in a contemporary Super GT prototype following an initial outing behind the wheel of a Honda NSX-GT at Motegi in 2022 during the Japanese manufacturer’s end-of -season event.
Super GT is considered the fastest championship for grand touring cars in the world, with current GT500 machines capable of outpacing even the World Endurance Championship’s hypercars over a typical lap around Fuji.
Verstappen said he relished his experience aboard the Nissan Z, even as heavy rain left the track wet and limited his running around Fuji.
“It was a lot of fun,” the 28-year-old said on the eve of the Japanese Grand Prix. “Just a shame that it was raining quite a bit, so I couldn’t do that many laps. I would have liked to do more laps.
“But it’s a fantastic car, a fantastic category in general, and it was a great experience for me to drive that car, and also feel the grip in the wet. It’s quite different to what we have in Europe, just being able to drive so many different cars is always a good thing.”
Verstappen has increasingly been exploring opportunities in sportscar racing, partly due to his dislike of current F1 hybrids, and recently contested the NLS2 at the Nurburgring Nordschleife in a Mercedes-AMG GT3.
While he is open to the prospect of racing GT500 machines, which are significantly more advanced than road-based GT3 cars, he pointed to Super GT’s format as a key obstacle. Asked whether he would consider entering a Super GT race, Verstappen said: “Who knows, I need to see.
“It’s a great category. I wish they had a bit more of a standout one race, instead of just a championship. If that would be the case, it’s easier to commit to one; I cannot do a whole championship and to do one race in a championship sometimes is also not the right thing. So, we’ll see.
“I would love to race these cars. It really reminds me of how the old DTM [Class 1] cars used to be, and that’s what you also really liked watching.”
Why Super GT lacks a standout race
Super GT500
Photo by: Masahide Kamio
Verstappen’s comments at Suzuka highlight a major gap in Super GT’s current structure. The 2026 season calendar features eight races across seven venues, but there is limited differentiation between those events.
Six of the eight races are run over 300km, the same distance as a grand prix, while two endurance rounds are timed to three hours. The Sepang round stands out naturally as the only overseas race on the calendar, while the Fuji GT 3 Hours is the series’ de facto showpiece, as it is scheduled to coincide with the Golden Week holiday season.
However, the championship previously boasted a genuine marque event that attracted several high-profile names, including the 2009 F1 champion Jenson Button.
Conceived as a standalone race in 1966, the Suzuka 1000km grew into a major endurance fixture, joining several international series including the World Sportscar Championship and the FIA GT Championship. By the time it became a Super GT round in 2006, it was already an established event, and it helped the series reach new heights.
Due to its endurance format, Super GT teams were allowed to field an additional third driver, which paved the way for several new entrants into the championship. In its early years, it attracted the likes of future F1 driver Adrian Sutil plus current sportscar veteran Oliver Jarvis and the trend carried on.
But perhaps the most famous name to enter Super GT through the Suzuka 1000km route is Button. After stepping away from F1 with McLaren, the Briton entered the 2017 Suzuka 8 Hours, joining the Mugen Honda team as its designated third driver.
The race hardly went his way and he finished a distant 12th, but the experience got him hooked and he signed a two-year deal with Honda to race in the championship full-time. Button would go on to win the title with his team-mate Naoki Yamamoto in 2018, adding a GT500 title to his previous success in F1.
However, this pathway to Super GT was essentially shut in 2018 when series’ promoter GTA joined forces with SRO to launch the Suzuka 10 Hours, a new endurance event as part of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.
The new 10-hour fixture became Suzuka’s sole ‘Summer Endurance Race’, shifting the spotlight away from Super GT and leaving the Fuji Golden Week round as the championship’s de facto headline event. With the Suzuka 10 Hours, the promoters aimed for a full-blown international event with a strong Japanese identity. But while teams competing in Super GT’s GT300 class were encouraged to take part, the format excluded GT500 machinery entirely, leaving no possibility of top-level factory involvement.
The Suzuka 1000km name still carries significant value, and SRO revived the format last year when Japan returned to the IGTC calendar. On this occasion, Super GT’s GTA-GT300 spec cars were allowed to compete alongside GT3 machinery, with performance balanced between the two classes.
Super GT, on the other hand, has continued to prioritise international expansion. In 2025, it successfully managed to bring back Sepang to the calendar after a prolonged absence, with the event immediately proving to be a success. Super GT has also previously forayed into Thailand, and both Sepang and Buriram were on the original 2020 calendar before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the schedule and forced the championship to race exclusively in Japan for the next five years.
Could Verstappen still enter Super GT?
Super GT
Photo by: Masahide Kamio
One avenue remains open for Verstappen, should he be serious about making a Super GT appearance.
Following Sepang’s return to the calendar last year, organisers floated the idea of a wildcard GT500 entry in 2026. At that time, the project was described as a ‘work in progress’, with no manufacturer committed to supplying or running a car.
Such an entry could, in theory, allow Verstappen to compete at Sepang on 20-21 June, in the short gap between the F1 races in Barcelona and Spielberg. However, the wildcard concept is primarily aimed at promoting Malaysian talent, meaning any involvement from Verstappen would likely depend on external backing – potentially from Red Bull.
Any wildcard programme, with or without Verstappen, would also need to secure cooperation from one of the three GT500 manufacturers in Super GT (Honda, Nissan and Toyota) to supply and run the car. Nissan may have some capacity after scaling back its GT500 programme from four to three cars this year due to financial issues. Notably, Nissan was also Red Bull’s manufacturer of choice for Verstappen’s test outing at Fuji.
Ultimately, any participation in Super GT could hinge on Verstappen’s long-term future in F1. The layout of Suzuka exposes the shortcomings of the current hybrid package, with drivers losing as much as 50km/h on 130R due to super clipping.
Suzuka is usually a favourite among drivers, so the fact that Verstappen couldn’t enjoy it as much as he would have liked was reflected in his comments. The Dutchman admitted that he has some “life” decisions to make, as his discontent with F1 grows.
While he may seem resigned by the situation, he is also working closely with F1 and the FIA to refine the regulations. It’s unclear what would be the outcome of those talks, and if the current-generation of cars can be suitably modified to his liking for Verstappen to see out his contract with Red Bull.
Even if he remains in F1 next year, chances are Verstappen will be racing sportscars more than ever, and it would be hard for him to resist the allure of Super GT.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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