Max Verstappen has ambitions to compete in the Le Mans 24 Hours but reservations about the race’s controversial Balance of Performance rules.
The race is part of the World Endurance Championship. Under its Hypercar regulations, the rule makers specify different weight and power limits for the cars to equalise their performance. These are adjusted at several points during a season.WEC has seen an influx of manufacturers under the rules. McLaren became the latest team to announce it will join the series in 2027, by which point 11 brands will be represented in the top class, including Ferrari, Aston Martin and Alpine.
Verstappen has often indicated his desire to enter the race but admits he is concerned the BoP rules could make car performance a lottery.
“I always try to watch it every single year,” he told Viaplay. “Of course, I would say back when Tom [Kristensen] was racing it was really cool with different manufacturers really pushing each other.
“Then there were a few years where it was a bit, I would say, boring up top. There was not that much competition. But now I feel like it’s getting back to that.
“Of course you have to deal with the BoP, so sometimes also you need to luck-in a little bit, but at least it’s amazing to see so many top-class cars racing.”
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Last year Verstappen said Le Mans needs to “sort out” the BoP rules before he would consider racing in the category.
A Ferrari won the race last weekend for the third year in a row since the manufacturer returned to the World Endurance Championship. Toyota’s cars finished fifth and 15th, and the team’s technical director David Floury reportedly made further veiled criticism of the BoP rules.
“On pure performance, there was no way we would compete,” he said. “There was never any potential. It was a two-class race: one with the cars with top speed and one with the cars with no top speed.
“Unfortunately we got the wrong ticket and we were in the second class with Cadillac and Aston Martin.”
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An Sionnach
19th June 2025, 12:31
The first rule of BoP..?
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
19th June 2025, 12:49
Never heard of him.
MichaelN
19th June 2025, 20:11
It ought to be, explain how it works. Those who can are worth listening to. Those who can’t, not so much.
AndrewT (@andrewt)
19th June 2025, 21:06
… is you do not talk about BoP.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
19th June 2025, 22:14
That was Sonny Hayes, wasn’t it?
Genghis Blond
20th June 2025, 19:10
He obviously didn’t watch the race. Because it’s less about luck than ever. Kubica drove the best out of any of the drivers in the top positions. He and Estre were the only drivers not to have a spin, an off, etc.
Also, BoP is scaled way back for the 24 Hours of LM. And the Ferrari would be way faster without the BoP. Max is basically saying he wants to be guaranteed a big advantage.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
21st June 2025, 3:06
paint your car red ?
Ronald
19th June 2025, 13:26
For me BoP in Le Mans ruined most of the fun. It has become even more of a jury sport. You never know which team is actually performing best. The teams seem to make a mockery of it themselves: BMW joined the Hypercar class with a Dallara chassis with a few changes. Seems to me they are just hoping to draw the lucky number in de BOP lottery and snatch a podium without putting in the effort like Audi, Toyota and Porsche did earlier.
Maisch (@maisch)
20th June 2025, 15:35
Same here, watched le mans since i was a kid in the early 90s. But this BOP era just cant engage me, even if there where 100 cars on the grid, it took away too much of the sporting aspec of it.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
21st June 2025, 3:09
once they started running the diesels out by slowing them down in the pits Le Mans has been going downwards.
Audi vs Peugeot was great, Porsche was pretty cool because of the way they built an interesting motor / power unit, … BUT, it’s not LMP any more, it’s just factory commercials.
The FIA sould it’s soul to $$$. And eventually people will stop watching it, because the only thing WEC or F1 have to offer is fake racing, and rule changes made to benefit the spectacle.
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
19th June 2025, 13:29
People always have complaints about everything…were you happy with Toyota 1-2-3 and no other teams even daring to participate? Are you excited by total domination?.Does the idea of a Ducati 1-2-3-4-5-6 want you to watch MotoGp too?
Dex
19th June 2025, 14:35
Yes it does, if it’s on merit. It’s not as fun as having multiple competitive teams, but at least it’s real! And there’s that excitement when someone else wins or makes progress and eventually catches up.
I don’t want someone to arbitrarily decide which car will be allowed to go fastest or forced to be slower. Now that’s not fun at all.
I want the story to be how Ferrari (or whoever) created the best car and won. Or maybe how their drivers had extraordinary pace, or had safer hands than others. Maybe they had luck… BoP – now that’s just lame. As lame as it gets. And if you competed in any sport, you’d probably feel terrible if there were a BoP of some sort. Imagine being bored by a football club dominating their league, thus forcing them to attack a smaller goal than their opponents (with size of each goal being decided before each match, using some secret/random criteria).
Would you even celebrate your favourite team winning a match under such circumstances? I don’t imagine you would.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
19th June 2025, 16:03
Not much doubt for me, they won on merit. If Ferrari did not have the worst overall BOP, it was 2nd worst BOP for sure. Still won. Porsche, on the other hand, a “positive” BOP. Just some numbers for you:
– Min. weight = 1041kg for Porsche, 1042kg for Ferrari, 1053kg for Toyota
– Max power after 250kph = 518kW for Porsche, 500kW for Ferrari, 513kW for Toyota
– Max energy/stint = 926 for Porsche, 905 for Ferrari, 923 for Toyota
– Power gain after 250kph = +1% for Porsche, -3,3% for Ferrari, – 1,3% for Toyota
Ali Daniels
20th June 2025, 17:46
Crikey, they really tried to hobble SF didn’t they 😲 makes their performance all the more impressive
Genghis Blond
20th June 2025, 19:12
And Ferrari did have the best car…no one else has been more restricted than them.
I understand why fans might have an issue, but Max having an issue is like a driver saying I only want to race have if I have built in advantage. Disappointing, because he doesn’t need one.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
19th June 2025, 14:37
If there’s interest from manufacturers to compete because of the BoP, then there’s more than enough reason to complain if the playing field isn’t level. For a formula that promotes equality, the level of dominance from Ferrari specially this year is surprising.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
19th June 2025, 14:39
And as Dex says, I’d rather see dominance on merit, than artificial tight fights.
MichaelN
19th June 2025, 20:14
BoP is not meant to equalise the cars come what may.
It is still crucial to show up with an excellent car.
This is what Ferrari, Porsche, Toyota and Cadillac have done. Their lap time spread is extremely similar.
BMW and Peugeot are a bit behind, and Aston Martin and Alpine have a lot of work to do.
Genghis Blond
20th June 2025, 19:14
Exactly. People are clueless about BoP. They just hear the name and think they know what it means.
stevostr
19th June 2025, 14:22
BoP only makes up a part of the end result. Le mans is so much more and that’s why I personally love it.
A small subset of what if’s
Will you have mechanical reliability?
Will you have an AM in a GT3 in front of you at 2AM suddenly swerving out?
Will your pit limiter software work?
Will your pit crew attach all 4 wheels at hour 21?
That’s why even if you’re not the fastest you could in theory win via consistency
Joshua
25th June 2025, 21:07
Indeed. I’m not 100% sure but I think the #83 started way back in the pack but just put the foot down and passed everyone like they were standing still. I actually liked this race even though the cars were too equal. Paralyzing speed eliminated the potential to go fast and challenge competition. I like how the cost cap thing is a good theory. See if anyone can use it wisely and invest in three things. Reliability, speed of the engine or the handling of the car.
MarkWebber (@markwebber)
19th June 2025, 15:24
I can’t thank Verstappen enough for always speaking out against the gimmicks that have emerged in motorsport in recent years. He may well be the last purist driver.
Alesici
19th June 2025, 16:06
Very true. There’s a lot to dislike about Verstappen, but I really love this aspect of him.
osnola
19th June 2025, 15:26
Not being able to comment on the rules of the sport is ridiculous in itself.
FIA is making a mockery of racing in general.
Sam
19th June 2025, 16:47
I enjoyed the race but the two factory Ferrari’s made so many mistakes and still were just behind second place. The customer Ferrari largely had a clean race and took the victory, the first customer team win in many years.
Anyway, I’ve only been watching WEC and IMSA since 2020/2021 I think, I can see arguments for and against balance of performance, but they have replaced F1 as my main series so I don’t think they are doing that badly.
JoshJ81
19th June 2025, 17:39
Max didn’t have a Balance of Power issue when he and his car were dominating on their way 4x championships
CarWars (@maxv)
20th June 2025, 7:29
because there is no BoP in F1..
matt90
19th June 2025, 17:42
It doesn’t really sound like he knows what he’s talking about. I’m a massive fan of Kristensen and in no way am I diminishing his achievements. When there was other limited manufacturer competition it was often tough, and within the Audi/Bentley stable there was also stiff competition. In fact it’s incredible how close he was to even more wins if not for reliability or teammates crashing his car.
But 5 of his 9 wins were in Audi R8 alone, when other manufacturer competition was minimal. In the Bentley, Audi had stepped aside so it was only customer teams. In the Audi R10 the only competition was Peugeot and in the R18 it was Toyota. It categorically wasn’t a very strong period in terms of number of manufacturers after the GT1 boom in the late 90s. I don’t think there were more than 2 manufacturers competing at any one time between 2000 and 2013.
matt90
19th June 2025, 17:57
Actually I’m forgetting Cadillac and Chrysler from the early 00s, although that I forgot them probably tells you everything about how competitive they were at le Mans.
osnola
19th June 2025, 18:30
No how could he… drives only a f1 car and running a gt3 team. Obvious lack of knowledge..
anon
19th June 2025, 19:14
osnola, and how is driving a modern GT3 car relevant to what the world of sportscar racing like when Kristensen was racing at Le Mans before Max was even born?
Osnola
20th June 2025, 14:12
Interesting stalking behavior. Its not about the driving its about the knowledge. But he, you are free to write your narrative here ;)
matt90
21st June 2025, 14:21
Okay, in what way was he possibly correct? Given you didn’t actually address anything in my comment and seem to think owning a GT3 team is equivalent to having knowledge about on the LMP era…
He was showing a classic case of rose tinted glasses because of nostalgia.
osnola
23rd June 2025, 18:02
And nostalgia is what the 24hours should be. No bop but diferent classes with different outcomes.
And i bet his knowledge on the matter is way broader then your fanview based on books and videos.
Stating he has no knowledge from someone like you is a bit arrogant to say the least.
MichaelN
19th June 2025, 20:19
There is a reason LMP1 collapsed, and none of the BoP-naysayers have presented a viable alternative.
Plus, Verstappen might want to ask the petrol powered manufacturers how honest the competition was in the 2000s. Diesel was heavily promoted in the regulations. The same with hybrid ten years later. The Equivalence of Technology was largely window dressing. The non-hybrids never stood a chance.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
19th June 2025, 21:19
I used to watch Le Mans every year and used to make the travel over to France to attend it every few years when I could but with the way the BOP has been the past what 10-15 years or whatever it’s been i’ve just completely lost interest in it because for me it’s just no longer a true motor race but instead is been artificially manipulated by BOP.
If a team turns up with a dominant car because they have simply done a better job than anyone else then they deserve that dominance and it should be left upto other teams/manufactures to improve there cars and do a better job.
Having the best car handicapped and the slower cars given benefits to help them catch up is for me simply not what the sport is about and I have zero interest in supporting such anti-sport, anti- motor racing fake and manipulated nonsense.
Mayrton
20th June 2025, 9:18
Entertainment for the masses comes with a steep price.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
21st June 2025, 19:55
it’s not entertainment, it’s propaganda.
I agree with Roger, Le Mans was amazing over 10 years ago, but when they shut down the diesels and started BOPing them to death, in the pits, then with the gas fuel restrictions, and then I really stopped watching after that. Now it seems more like pay to play these days, with everyone buying a ‘factory’ car. So yeah, just a bunch of celebrities, lance strolls, having to spend a lot of money on something they didn’t actually build themselves. Which really is what events like Le Mans is really SHOULD BE about, guys who love the craft not the bill from the manufacturer.