When Max Verstappen hustles his Winward team’s Mercedes GT3 car around the Nordschleife this weekend in his quest to win the Nurburgring 24 Hours, record numbers of fans are expected to watch on, either at the sold-out event or via the broadcast. Among them will likely be a number of his Formula 1 colleagues, and some of them might even be tinged with envy.
McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri got a taste of the Nordschleife as recently as a couple of weeks ago, when the pair dovetailed a tyre test at the Nurburgring with a Nordschleife excursion in a McLaren 750S.
“It was the most fun I’ve had all year to be honest,” Norris said in Miami. “It’s a circuit I’ve driven on Gran Turismo and iRacing. It’s one of those tracks that everyone just wants to drive. Whether you’re a racing driver or not it’s just always cool to go and do that because it’s so unique. I felt I was lucky.
“I feel like you can do it in any car and probably have a lot of fun. In the McLaren it’s scary and fun. But it was cool that I got to do one of those things. As much as I’ve been in Formula 1 for years and been to the Nurburgring countless times, it was my first opportunity to actually go on the Nordschleife and drive.”
Norris, who previously competed in the 2018 Daytona 24 Hours in LMP2, said he had followed Verstappen’s previous NLS exploits to help bolster his virtual knowledge of the revered 20.8km loop.
“I’ve also been watching all of the onboards,” he said. “I knew the track by heart already, but I’ve been watching all the GT races that Max has been doing. I have quite a few of my friends in GT racing. I’ve watched it for years. So, it’s nice to get my own view of the circuit and I think it certainly lives up to all the expectations and the things that people say about it.”
Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli have expressed an interest in following in Max Verstappen’s GT racing footsteps
Photo by: Hector Vivas / Formula 1 via Getty Images
“I’ll be watching maybe not the whole 24 hours, but as much as possible and spotting Max because he’s a guy that I respect a lot. I’ve enjoyed watching him and Christopher Haase racing the last few weeks.”
Haas driver Oliver Bearman was also a member of the NLS series’ growing online audience as Verstappen qualified for the 24 Hours, and said he “will definitely be tuning in and watching it”, while Mercedes frontrunner George Russell is another F1 driver with designs on competing at the Ring at some point in the future. But his request to team boss Toto Wolff to run an F1 car around there, which was last done by Sebastian Vettel in a Red Bull in 2023, has yet to be granted.
“I did watch Max’s race in the Nordschleife,” Russell said. “I’d love to do it, without a doubt. I have driven it before; I’ve driven hundreds of laps on the sim around the Nordschleife. I don’t know when the day will be.
“I did once try having a conversation with Toto about putting the F1 car around there and breaking the all-time lap record. Right now, I’m focused on trying to win a F1 world championship and hopefully, when I’ve got four under my belt, I’ll go and race the Nordschleife and during my F1 season too…”
Of all active F1 drivers, perhaps Russell’s team-mate and current championship leader Kimi Antonelli seems the closest to actually making it there. Antonelli previously tested and raced a Mercedes GT3 through his father Marco, who runs a successful GT team in Italy, and as a 16-year-old Antonelli even took an Italian GT sprint win on his debut. And rather than just hoping to head to the Ring at some point in the future, Antonelli hinted at already plotting a path to obtaining a Nordschleife A-permit.
“I would love to do an endurance race with Max together,” Antonelli said earlier this year. “I think that would be pretty awesome. It’s cool because we both have passion for GTs. On my side it came from my dad with the GT team. Occasionally, I go and test when I can.
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
“I think it would be a really cool pairing and a really cool experience, but it’s something that I’ve been considering as well. I’ve already asked for a test at the Nordschleife, for example, because it’s a track that I love, and I would love to be able to try it in the real world as well.”
Driving under the Verstappen.com Racing banner, Verstappen will share the Winward-run Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Jules Gounon, Daniel Juncadella and Lucas Auer. The race gets under way on Saturday at 3pm local time, with livestreams available on YouTube.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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