Max Verstappen will not be allowed to miss grands prix to pursue his desire to race GT cars, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has confirmed.
The Red Bull driver participated in a test session on the Nurburgring Nordschleife last week in a Ferrari 296 GT3 car. He has spoken about his desire to take part in the 24-hour race at the famous track, which is widely regarded as one of the most demanding in the world.Red Bull previously forbade Verstappen from taking part in one of its F1 show runs at the track. In 2023 Verstappen revealed Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko blocked him from having his first experience of the Nordschleife.
“I would have loved to do it,” said Verstappen at the time, “but I was not allowed by Helmut because he knew that I would try and go to the limits.”
Red Bull’s reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo and former driver Sebastian Vettel took part in the event. Marko said there was no question of Verstappen being allowed to join them.
“I know Max,” said Marko. “He says he doesn’t care about records [but] he knows the record by the second and if he is driving there he is not going only to beat it, he wants to beat it in a big way.”
However Red Bull were prepared to let him take part in a test session at the track in slower GT machinery.
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“As Red Bull, we’ve always been slightly more relaxed than perhaps other teams in terms of the freedom that we’ve given our drivers,” Horner told Sky.
Qualifying for this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours will be held next week, during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend. The race will take place on the weekend between the Canadian and Austrian grands prix.
During 2017 Fernando Alonso missed the Monaco Grand Prix in order to race in the Indianapolis 500. But Horner said he won’t allow Verstappen to miss a grand prix to take part in GT competitions: “No, he’s not going to miss a race, that’s for sure.”
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David BR (@david-br)
17th May 2025, 14:29
So what’s Mercedes’ position on letting Max do this kind of moonlighting?
Sounds like the basis for a whole new friendship :)
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
17th May 2025, 17:12
If you think about it, you can’t afford to miss a race if you’re fighting for a championship, which both red bull and merc aim for, but so does verstappen.
Edvaldo
17th May 2025, 17:48
The only way Max would consider losing a race to race somewhere else was for them to give him a bad car.
Alonso was racing for nothing in 2017, so it was commercially worthy for Mclaren to make that happen. His car broke down in Button’s hands anyway, didn’t it?
If they produce a car in which he would not contend for anything, what would be the point in forcing him to race? At the moment the team needs him more than he needs the team, it would be acceptable to do anything to keep him.
skydiverian (@skydiverian)
18th May 2025, 6:47
Button took out Pascal Wehrlein at Portier which destroyed his suspension. And he got 2 points on his licence.
McLaren had a win-win by letting Alonso race a McLaren branded Indycar at the 500 when the F1 car was terrible that season. As much as I don’t like Horner he’s got a driver who is very much in contention for the championship so it makes sense to block racing elsewhere if the race directly clashes with an F1 race. If he blocks Max racing on an non-F1 weekend, that will be when this is worth revisiting.