Max Verstappen provides GT future update after dominant Nordschleife performance
Max Verstappen made his GT3 racing debut alongside Chris Lulham at the Nurburgring.
For as much as he loves GT racing, Max Verstappen has confessed that he’s not sure just how much of it he’ll be able to indulge in come the start of the F1 2026 season.
The racer, who recently won his debut race at the Nordschleife alongside co-driver Chris Lulham, is placing his priority on developing his Red Bull Racing team into a new regulatory era before he considers looking outward.
Max Verstappen unclear on future in GT3 racing
Max Verstappen may indeed be one of the most successful drivers in Formula 1 history, but his passion lies in the more humble GT categories.
Back in F1’s history, it was fairly common to see a championship-caliber driver making appearances in any number of different series. The legendary Jim Clark, for example, was a regular name in the Formula Two paddock, at the Indianapolis 500, and even in the British Saloon Car Championship.
This was, of course, during an era where Grand Prix racing paid very little, so many drivers needed to cross disciplines to make a living. Yet many not only embraced but came to love the competition they indulged in away from the international F1 circus.
Verstappen’s recent foray into GT racing is a more modern entry in this vein.
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The Dutch driver is known for competing in a variety of GT-related sim racing events, and that interest spread to the real world in the form of his Verstappen.com race team and now in his driving pursuits.
“It was [great fun],” Verstappen told C4 of his recent competition debut at the Nürburgring. “Any car that you drive there, even if it’s a road car, if you push that, the track is insane.”
A fabulous onboard made the rounds showing Verstappen rocketing by a slower car with two wheels on the grass, and the joy was clear in his voice as he recounted the incident.
“Wet grass, as well! It was in qualifying. I didn’t want to lose even more time, because up until that point I already had so much traffic in the lap, and I knew that I’d lost so much time with it, and I needed to improve on my lap,” he explained.
“So I was like, well, two wheels on the grass — and luckily it was not a big shunt!”
But Verstappen isn’t solely interested in racing GT3s for the sake of it; rather, he believes that understanding the machinery is critical to his ability to accurately run a team.
“It’s my passion, you know,” he said.
“Having also my GT3 team, and wanting to make it a success in the future, I need to be involved, you know, because if I drive it, I have the best feeling of things, and then it’s easier to judge of what to do. I enjoyed it.”
But that last outing at the Nürburgring ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix was Verstappen’s last scheduled GT3 race this season, and he has yet to line up anything else on his calendar.
Why? Well, Formula 1 is his primary focus, and 2026 is bringing with it a major regulatory overhaul that will require his ample attention.
“How many times can I do it next year? I don’t know,” he mused to Channel 4.
“We’ll see. We’ll find out next year. But it’s definitely something that I would want to do definitely more in the future anyway.”
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