{"id":177839,"date":"2025-09-29T15:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T15:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/177839\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T15:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T15:32:08","slug":"max-verstappens-great-passion-declared-too-risky-for-mclaren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/177839\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen’s ‘great passion’ declared too ‘risky’ for McLaren"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clocking near-lap records at the N\u00fcrburgring in a Ferrari GT3 car, Helmut Marko may call Max Verstappen\u2019s off-weekend antics a \u201cgreat passion\u201d, but for McLaren it would just be a \u201crisk\u201d.<\/p>\n

Having qualified for his Permit A in the break between the Italian and Azerbaijan F1 grands prix, Verstappen contested his first GT3 race at the Nordschleife last weekend. And he won. Of course.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen is in a privileged position at Red Bull<\/p>\n

Lining up third on the grid for a rolling start this past weekend, Verstappen made short work of the GT3 cars ahead, built up a 62-second lead and then handed the car over to his teammate Chris Lulham, <\/a>who secured the victory.<\/p>\n

Despite the reputation of the \u2018green hell\u2019, Red Bull supported Verstappen<\/a> throughout it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s great that a Formula 1 driver, who has many obligations besides racing \u2013 simulator, marketing and PR appointments \u2013 is still taking the time for something like this with such enthusiasm,\u201d Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko told RTL.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe N\u00fcrburgring and the Nordschleife are, of course, something that fascinates every racer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when our car was not competitive, it was his great passion. Now both are working.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while Red Bull is willing to give its World Champion free rein to do what he needs so long as he does not neglect his Formula 1 commitments, other teams may not be so open to their drivers taking that risk.<\/p>\n

And the Nordschleife is a risk.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen at the N\u00fcrburgring<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Max Verstappen teases next step after punishing N\u00fcrburgring GT3 rivals<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Max Verstappen punishes N\u00fcrburgring GT3 rivals after first-lap heroics<\/a><\/p>\n

One person died in June this year at Schwedenkreuz, a fast left-hand bend, when the car went violently off the track at the corner. A 24-year-old man, one of the car\u2019s occupants, was killed instantly at the scene, with two other passengers were seriously injured.<\/p>\n

And that wasn\u2019t even a race.<\/p>\n

It had Bernie Collins asking her fellow Sky F1 pundits if Red Bull would change its stance if Verstappen was in the title fight against the McLaren teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had one thought on this at home on the weekend. Obviously, over the winter, a lot of teams prevent drivers from going skiing or snowboarding or mountain biking or any of these things that could potentially injure themselves,\u201d said the former Aston Martin strategist.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, like it literally says on the pass, motorsport is dangerous. Like driving around the Nordschleife in a slower car.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, if he were racing for the world championship, if Red Bull were racing for the Constructors\u2019 championship, it should be a slightly different decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Max is a great driver, but it\u2019s like any of us driving on the road at home. You can\u2019t be responsible for the guys around you. A big accident could happen at any time. So it\u2019s a risk, I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s the engineer in me talking.\u201d<\/p>\n

A risk that former F1 driver Chandhok believes McLaren would not take given both its drivers are in the title race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s Oscar or Lando, absolutely, it\u2019s not worth the risk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, I think you also have to think of the characters. I think Fernando or a Max, they get energised by driving all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, it\u2019s a bit like when people were saying about Lewis going to all these places and fashion shows, and Toto used to say, \u2018Well, it\u2019s what makes him happy and a happy Lewis is a faster Lewis.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think it\u2019s just understanding who you\u2019ve got and absolutely playing that risk-reward game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next: \u2018One and a half laps\u2019 \u2013 Huge Verstappen prediction after crushing N\u00fcrburgring win<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clocking near-lap records at the N\u00fcrburgring in a Ferrari GT3 car, Helmut Marko may call Max Verstappen\u2019s off-weekend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,818,913,44,85,13852],"class_list":{"0":"post-177839","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-home-page","14":"tag-mclaren","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177839","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=177839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}