Max Verstappen has denied a rival’s claim he enjoyed a car advantage when he set competitive lap times in a recent GT test on the Nurburgring Nordschleife.
The four-times Formula 1 world champion took part in a test at the famed, 14-kilometre track in a Ferrari 296 GT3 car last week. He appeared for his Team Redline squad using a pseudonym, ‘Franz Hermann’.Afterwards Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko claimed their driver had beaten the lap record for the class by two seconds.
However Maro Engel, a long-time Mercedes driver who races for them in the GT3-based DTM series, claimed Verstappen’s car was not the same specification as that used by other drivers. He said Verstappen’s car used the Balance of Performance specification for the DTM, rather than the Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie [NLS], which conducts 24-hour races on the track.
“[A] few facts to Franz Hermann GT3 Nordschleife test,” stated Engel in a social media post. “[The] car was run in DTM spec BoP (less weight, more power, lower ride height than NLS BoP).
“Lap time: 7’48. Still impressive for a first visit to the green hell. Would be cool to see Franz compete!”
Verstappen, in a rare reply on social media, denied Engel’s claim, calling it: “False.”
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“Don’t spread things when you don’t know how the car was set-up and our engine settings,” he said. “Why would I join a NLS track day with the wrong BoP.”
The Red Bull driver has expressed an interest in taking part in the Nurburgring 24 Hours in the future. He won a virtual 24-hour race on the course last year in iRacing with Redline team mates Chris Lulham, Florian Lebigre and Diogo Pinto. The event took place during the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix weekend.
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baasbas
17th May 2025, 12:18
Why would Engel make that claim. I mean, let’s assume it is true, you’d have to prove it to make a point. He can never prove it so it is always better to ignore it. It’s a lose-lose situation to comment on the lap time
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
17th May 2025, 12:26
Yeah. And if you’re saying such thing, say how you know it. Back it up with info.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
17th May 2025, 15:52
This is how he replied Max:
“Seems like paddock chat was incorrect then. Your clearly in a better position to tell us what you ran. Thnx and same to you”
He went with “facts” in his first tweet, then “paddock chat”. Top guy!
anon
17th May 2025, 15:53
@fer-no65 the irony is that you’re asking Engel to back that claim up with info, but Marko is also making claims about Verstappen’s performance that have no evidence to back them up either. The organisers of that event have not published any timing data from that event, and there are several different conflicting claims on what lap time that Verstappen was supposed to have set – this article claims 7m48s, whilst others claim that it was a 7m49.5s lap time.
The closest we have to any sort of independent evidence is from the Daily Sportscar website, which did send a journalist to attend that event. There is the caveat that they only measured two of Verstappen’s fast laps, but the best time that they recorded him doing was a 7m56s lap time.
Now, there is the caveat that we don’t know the full context in which those times were set, but the times they were recording would indicate Verstappen was setting reasonably competitive, but not record breaking (Frank Stippler set a 7m51.5s lap time in qualifying for the NLS1 race in March). Somewhat ironically, it’d mean that Verstappen’s lap time of 7m56s would have been about the same as Engel himself set in that NLS1 race earlier this year.
As for the car itself, I can see why there would be speculation over the configuration that the car would have been in – in part because this session was not part of any official race so, strictly speaking, there wouldn’t have been a requirement for the cars to need to comply with the NLS regulations.
The car that Verstappen used is owned and operated by Emil Frey Racing, but Emil Frey doesn’t compete in the NLS championship – they compete in DTM and the GT World Championship, and this test took place almost exactly halfway between the GT World Championship races in Brands Hatch (2nd-4th May) and the next round in Zandvoort (16-18th May).
Now, it’s unclear if the GT World Championship use exactly the same BoP formulas that DTM does, but the limited information that is online does suggest they use a similar BoP to each other. It does raise the question of whether it’d be easier for Emil Frey to leave the car in the same configuration as they use in the GT World Championship, given they came straight from Brands Hatch to the Nurburgring and then had to leave for scruitineering for the race in Zandvoort shortly thereafter, rather than changing it to NLS specification for a one off test for a series they don’t compete in.
It seems plausible to me that they could have left the car in GT World Championship configuration, which would probably be the same, or similar, to the DTM configuration, and it does seem plausible that, given Engel races in both the GT World Championship and the NLS Championship, he might recognise if the car was in that configuration, rather than NLS configuration.
S Arkazam
17th May 2025, 22:42
You could also just say that you don’t know either, but decided to start off with some whatsboutism to counter another commenter.
You can do better!
S Arkazam
17th May 2025, 13:01
Actually it works quite the opposite on Social Media; you don’t have to prove anything if you want to make a point ;)
baasbas
17th May 2025, 14:13
@S Arkazam:
Ok, fair I guess. But if that was Engels point, he should be smarter with it. He could publicly say it’s nice that because of this his sport gets extra attention and then behind the scenes start rumours about BoP of that car but only off the record. Let a reporter ‘with an unknown source’ ask the question to Verstappen and then let them write: “Verstappen responds suspiciously irritated to inside information, what is he hiding”. Copy paste said article to a couple forums..
Job done
S Arkazam
17th May 2025, 15:21
Now make mistake here: you are mistaking people who use Social Media for being smart. ;)
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
17th May 2025, 12:34
Based Max setting facts straight! Other drivers can’t comprehend he’s THAT fast and accuse him of cheating, which is simply pathetic.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
17th May 2025, 12:42
I’m not typically a fan of high performance cars aesthetically. But that car, in that livery looks lovely.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
17th May 2025, 12:56
Absolutely, looks great!
Paul
17th May 2025, 12:47
Max’s car advantage is between the steering wheel and the seat.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
17th May 2025, 12:57
Not surprised about verstappen setting competitive lap times, without cheating, in any series. See how alonso did at indy 500 the one time he had a competitive car.
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
17th May 2025, 13:36
I mean, he said himself he’s done thousands of laps in the sun—and whilst never the same, modern sims are pretty darn good. And knowing all the corners of a track is half the battle, especially for the Nurburgring.
I used to really dislike Max, but oddly I’ve come around as he’s matured and I’ve realised that he is just genuinely ridiculously quick. Must respect the pure speed and brilliance.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
17th May 2025, 14:28
Verstappen has probably done 1000s of laps on the Nordschleife in that car in sim racing so he’s not at all unfamiliar. And no discredit to GT racers: Verstappen is one of the best drivers in F1 and an all time great. If he doesn’t beat them comprehensively it would be even more astonishing.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
17th May 2025, 14:52
If he was to join another series or do a 24hrs race, it would be a huge coup for any series. I would be keen to watch. It would be a bit of a gut punch to F1, but the way things are at Red Bull, I can see him moving sooner rather than later. Whether that’s another F1 team, semi retirement and just do stuff for the fun of it (imagine if he did Bathurst?). It’s not like he needs the money.
baasbas
17th May 2025, 16:53
@bernasaurus:
It’s another reason to decrease the number of F1 races through the year. Some of these big races could welcome a few F1 drivers. It’s a win-win. If they do well, F1 can boast more about having the best drivers. If they struggle, the series can claim to have serious talents as driver. And either way, more viewers guaranteed for that series.
I’ll just put my votes here for a reboot of the Bercy indoor kart race at the end of the year and some Le Mans appearances, thank you..
Ferdi
18th May 2025, 9:21
It would be a mistake to ignore the signal that is being given by Max. F1 might not be the pinnacle of Motorsport any longer under current leadership. It will be the WWE of motorcading. I am sure he doesn’t want any part of that. Excited to see which series he will enter and I’d be happy to trade F1 for that series. The combination of corrupt FIA and money grabbing Liberty has not done this sports any good.