Max Verstappen is relishing his first weekend off in seven weeks after his Nurburgring adventures, and shed some light on his racing plans away from F1 in 2026.<\/p>\n
Verstappen has used his recent off-weekends from F1 to head to the Nurburgring, achieve his racing licence at the German circuit, and win at his first attempt at a real-life endurance event on the Nordschleife.<\/p>\n
Max Verstappen: Nurburgring races \u2018won\u2019t hurt\u2019 becoming a better driver<\/p>\n
Since the resumption of the F1 calendar after the summer break, Verstappen has been away from home taking part in weekend racing, even aside from his frantic F1 schedule.<\/p>\n
After the double-header of Zandvoort and Monza, Verstappen took part in an endurance race at the Nordschliefe, driving a detuned Porsche to complete an event and secure a full Nordschliefe permit to allow him to take part in a full-blooded GT3 race at the German circuit.<\/p>\n
Having popped over to Azerbaijan to win the Grand Prix in Baku the following weekend, Verstappen then headed back to the Nordschleife a few days later to race in the top class of the\u00a0NLS, the Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie, where he drove a Ferrari 296 GT3 to victory alongside Verstappen.com teammate Chris Lulham.<\/p>\n
Having seized the lead at the start, Verstappen put his Ferrari, run by Emil Frey Racing, into a commanding position early on; it was a lead that he and Lulham never relinquished during the four-hour race.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it was a lot of fun. I\u2019ve been preparing for that, of course, for a while,\u201d Verstappen told the media in Singapore, having headed over to Asia days after his Nordschleife victory in order to resume his usual Red Bull<\/a> F1 duties.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people, all the drivers, were super nice. I also don\u2019t feel or don\u2019t act like a different person with them.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we had good fun out there. There were, of course, a lot of fans under the podium, but in general, around the garage and on the track before the race. But that\u2019s nice to see that the passion is there.<\/p>\n \u201cI think in general, you know, the German racing fans, they\u2019re always there for these kinds of endurance races. I\u2019ve seen that before, and I\u2019m just very happy that they came out to support. I think it can only get bigger from here.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just two very nice days again, racing a bit in the wet and the dry, just getting more and more experience. It was nice, of course, to win it. Yeah, that\u2019s an extra bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked whether these extra-curricular events are making him a better all-rounder, the four-time F1 World Champion replied, \u201cDoes it make me a better driver? I mean, I\u2019ve been doing this already for so many years on the simulator, you know?<\/p>\n \u201cSo, for me, doing it now in real life is not very, very different, but it definitely doesn\u2019t hurt. I think I can say that.\u201d<\/p>\n After this weekend, there are just two weekends free between now and the season finale of the F1 championship in Abu Dhabi, and Verstappen laughed when asked if he has any further plans in endurance racing this year.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m taking a bit of a break!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter [Singapore] weekend, I\u2019ve done six weekends in a row, so it\u2019s quite a bit!\u201d<\/p>\n More from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 Why McLaren should have let its drivers battle from the very start<\/a><\/p>\n