Max Verstappen calls Nürburgring 24 Hours heartbreak ‘unfinished business’ after brutal exit

Max Verstappen has said the Nürburgring 24 Hours is “unfinished business” for him after enjoying the thrill of a “brutal” experience last weekend.

The four-time F1 World Champion made the most of a weekend off from his day job to take part in the prestigious endurance race as part of a four-man line-up behind the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG GT3 car.

Max Verstappen targets Nürburgring 24 Hours return after late retirement

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Verstappen’s team was leading the race with an almost 30-second advantage as the race approached the 21-hour mark at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Having spent months preparing to enter the endurance race by way of taking part in qualifying races to earn his required DMSB permit, the Verstappen Racing entry had started to emerge as the stronger of the two Mercedes entries from Winward Racing after a battle through the night.

The #3 Mercedes, piloted by Verstappen and teammate Lucas Auer, Dani Juncadella, and Jules Gounon, had taken the lead ahead of the #80 Mercedes during a Verstappen battle with Maro Engel, with the Dutch driver establishing the lead by the time he handed over the car to Juncadella with just over three hours to go.

However, minutes later, the battle was over, as a driveshaft failure on the Mercedes saw Juncadella return to the pits in dismay, with no quick fix possible to keep the car in contention.

All the build-up to the event was thus for naught, with the car eventually classified in 38th after returning to the track with two laps remaining.

Verstappen had opted against any media opportunities aside from short pit box interviews after climbing out of the car, and appeared before the F1 media on Thursday in Montreal, where the Red Bull driver spoke about his experience at the Nürburgring.

“I think, overall, it was just a great week. Yeah, I enjoyed it a lot,” he said.

“It was my first big endurance race, and everything went really well. Yeah, we had the car in good shape. I think we executed it very well.

“Unfortunately, it’s still a mechanical sport at the end of the day, and yeah, we had that failure, which, of course, cost us the win, because we had everything under control up until that point.

But the whole experience of also driving in the wet, changing conditions, and the whole experience like sharing it with my teammates was something that I really enjoyed.”

With Verstappen having been a particularly vocal critic of the direction Formula 1 has gone in with the new power unit regulations that have introduced the need for very different driving techniques, rather than a ‘flat-out’ approach as the Nurburgring event needed, the Dutch driver was asked about his feelings of satisfaction racing in F1 compared to endurance.

“I mean, it’s a different discipline,” he said.

“I enjoy it a lot, and it’s something that I always wanted to do outside of Formula 1. There are a lot of other kinds of racing that you can do, and that one was definitely on my list.

“I think if you look at the onboards, I think you can understand why; it’s brutal and just very exciting, and, for me, it was something that we prepared for a long time, and we managed to get it all together for that weekend, which was really cool, and of course, also something that I would like to keep going.”

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With the win so cruelly taken away with just three hours to go, having established a decent lead and seemingly having come on top of the intra-Mercedes battle, Verstappen said he’s hopeful of taking part in the Nürburgring 24 Hours again, provided the F1 calendar allows for it.

“I mean, I do feel that it’s a bit like unfinished business,” he said.

“I want to win it, so I want to go back, but of course, the calendar needs to allow it.

“But it’s definitely a race that I want to do more often.”

The suggestion that the F1 calendar not clash with the Nürburgring 24 Hours is the clearest indication yet that Verstappen intends to continue in motorsport’s top category next season, having declared his uncertainty over this earlier this year when the extent of the problems created by the new regulations became apparent.

With the Dutch driver pleased to see concessions made to improve the regulations, as well as a likely shift to a 60/40 power unit split next season, he said he’s feeling more positive about Formula 1, but opted against firmly shutting down the possibility of leaving the sport.

“I’m not yes or no, it doesn’t matter,” he said.

“For me, I’m happy where I’m at. I see the team really progressing, and that’s also very exciting to see. For me, I always wanted to continue anyway, but I always wanted to see change, and I think the change that’s coming now is definitely very, very positive, or at least I would say almost back to normal, so that’s good.”

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