successful bid to earn his Nordschleife Permit A last weekend<\/a>, a licence required to compete in GT3 machinery and the 24-hour classic.<\/p>\nFresh from his victory at the Italian Grand Prix, the Dutchman travelled to Germany to complete the mandatory theory exam and 14 race laps in mixed conditions during a round of the Nurburgring Langstrecken Series (NLS).<\/p>\n
Marko applauded the effort and confirmed Red Bull would not stand in Verstappen\u2019s way if he targets the 2026 event, which falls between the Miami and Canada on the 2026 Formula 1 calendar.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d Marko told Sport.de when asked if Verstappen could compete.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s great that a Formula 1 driver, who has many obligations in addition to the races \u2013 simulator, marketing and PR dates \u2013 takes the time for such a thing with huge enthusiasm.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Red Bull advisor also criticised the process that required the reigning champion to prove himself in a modestly powered car.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis German procedure, which a four-time world champion has to prove that he can drive around the ring with a 240bhp Porsche, is unique,\u201d Marko said.<\/p>\n
Driving a restricted Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS for Lionspeed GP, Verstappen was forced to adapt when one of his planned cars was ruled out after qualifying damage.<\/p>\n
He logged the required mileage in a single entry before officials accepted the circumstances and granted the permit.<\/p>\n
While Verstappen has called the idea of racing 24 hours at the Nordschleife \u201camazing,\u201d Marko drew a firm line at Le Mans, ruling out an entry in the French endurance classic for now.<\/p>\n
\u201cLe Mans is not in the program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe speed differences and the different categories are even bigger. For the time being, long distance is only the Nurburgring.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verstappen\u2019s growing interest in endurance racing has also caught the attention of McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, who joked that he\u2019d happily team up with the Dutchman in the future and hinted at a possible link beyond F1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to have Max as my teammate in endurance racing,\u201d Brown told De Telegraaf.<\/p>\n
\u201cMax is a great driver, a four-time champion for good reason\u2026 who knows, maybe one day.\u201d<\/p>\n
2025 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix \u2013 Schedule, how to watch, TV times & more<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has received Helmut Marko’s blessing to race in the Nurburgring 24-hours. Image: XPB Images The move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,4405,825,9910,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-151063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-helmut-marko","14":"tag-max-verstappen","15":"tag-slot2","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Marko](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/XPB_1302169_HiRes.jpg\")