Max Verstappen returns to the Nurburgring
Here we go again with Max Verstappen at the Nurburgring. The four-time world champion is not having fun in Formula 1, threatens retirement in an increasingly less veiled manner and returns every time he can to the wheel of GT3 cars to prepare for his next participation in the 24 Hours of the Nordschleife which will be held on the weekend of next May 16 and 17. He already did it, for example, after Suzuka, when he hurried to board a flight from Japan to get into the Mercedes AMG GT3 of his Verstappen.com Racing team, and he will do it again and again: for example, the next dates to mark in red on the calendar are those of April 18 and 19, with the Dutchman set to run two 4-hour races in two days.
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The approach program to the 24 Hours
Revealing the plans is Motorsport.com, which reports that the next goal for the Red Bull driver is not so much, as one might imagine, the third race of the NLS championship scheduled for April 11, but rather the two “qualifying” races for the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring Nordschleife, taking place the following week. The reason is simple: in the two races on April 18 and 19, the track is slightly different from the one used in the NLS championship, but the chosen configuration is exactly the same as the 24 Hours. Furthermore, another thing that entices Max Verstappen, Saturday’s race at the Nurburgring ends at 9:30 PM, and therefore at night: a very important test for the four-time world champion, who so far has driven in all conditions of the Nordschleife, but not at night.
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Also useful is the fact that Max will share the seat with Lucas Auer, given that both Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella – the two teammates with whom he raced on March 21, from whose finishing order the team was disqualified for a technical irregularity regarding tire use – will be unavailable that weekend, as they are busy in the WEC at Imola. Auer was the only member of the 24 Hours crew with whom Max had not yet shared the cockpit, so the double appointment on April 18 and 19, made possible only by the cancellation of the F1 races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, will ultimately be crucial for Max Verstappen at the Nurburgring.
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