{"id":167325,"date":"2025-09-25T04:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T04:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/167325\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T04:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T04:16:08","slug":"f1-news-verstappen-set-for-gt3-debut-at-nurburgring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/167325\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news: Verstappen set for GT3 debut at Nurburgring"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/XPB_1373480_HiRes.jpg\" alt=\"Verstappen set for GT3 debut at Nurburgring\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMax Verstappen will make his GT3 debut this weekend at the Nurburgring. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n<p>The four-time world champion confirmed he will line up in Saturday\u2019s four-hour race at the legendary Nordschleife, sharing an Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 with British driver Chris Lulham.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/f1-news-2025-max-verstappen-nordschleife-permit-gt3-nurburgbring-24-hours\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">received his DMSB Nordschleife Permit Grade A earlier this month<\/a> after contesting an NLS round in a Porsche Cayman GT4, a mandatory step to compete in GT3 machinery on the 25km circuit.<\/p>\n<p>His rapid move from testing to racing comes just a week after winning the his second consecutive F1 race <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/f1-news-2025-max-verstappen-wins-azerbaijan-oscar-piastri-crashes-out-championship-norris-heated-battle\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix<\/a> and continues a busy September schedule.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is my passion to do these kinds of GT3 races too \u2013 I can\u2019t wait,\u201d Verstappen said. \u201cI\u2019m passionate about racing, also outside of Formula 1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery lap at the Nordschleife is a different kind of experience. The atmosphere is also really good and there are a lot of endurance fans present.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s my hobby to race in other categories than Formula 1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy dream is to eventually participate in the 24-hour race at the Nurburgring Nordschleife.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1004309 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/G0qDjRBXQAEg2fF-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Verstappen is expected to be in contention for overall victory despite his debut status.<\/p>\n<p>The Dutchman has already tested a Ferrari 296 GT3 at the circuit, reportedly setting an eye-catching unofficial lap time while running under the pseudonym \u201cFranz Hermann\u201d earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>Lulham, a leading figure in Verstappen\u2019s sim racing squad Team Redline, earned his own permit alongside Verstappen and is also in his first season of GT competition.<\/p>\n<p>He arrives in Germany fresh from clinching the Gold Class title in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup finale in Valencia.<\/p>\n<p>The Nurburgring outing adds another chapter to Verstappen\u2019s growing endurance ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/f1-news-2025-max-verstappen-nurburgring-24-hours-helmut-marko-permission-zak-brown-mclaren\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recently confirmed the team supports Verstappen\u2019s GT exploits<\/a>, with the driver eyeing a potential entry in the 2026 Nurburgring 24 Hours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe sees also how passionate I am about it and what I\u2019m doing for it,\u201d Verstappen said of Marko\u2019s backing. \u201cHe has raced himself in endurance, so it\u2019s easy to relate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This weekend\u2019s race marks Verstappen\u2019s first opportunity to officially compete on the fearsome 20.8km Nordschleife in top-class GT3 machinery, with a large crowd expected to watch the F1 star tackle the \u201cGreen Hell.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen will make his GT3 debut this weekend at the Nurburgring. Image: XPB Images The four-time world&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,109803,825,22708,9910,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-167325","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-gt3","14":"tag-max-verstappen","15":"tag-slot1_f1","16":"tag-slot2","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167325","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=167325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}