Fresh from Formula 1’s title decider, Max Verstappen is already back in a GT car this week. <\/p>\n
In September earlier this year, he completed his Nordschleife permit<\/a>, before taking part in his first official GT3 race two weeks later at NLS9.\u00a0A race he won in a 296 GT3 Ferrari<\/a> shared with Chris Lulham.<\/p>\n So where does this all lead in 2026? What lies ahead for Verstappen.com Racing, and with which manufacturer? Here\u2019s what we currently know…<\/p>\n What is Verstappen doing this winter?<\/p>\n The 2025 F1 season ended just over a week ago. But despite recently becoming a father, and with a demanding winter ahead due to the introduction of new F1 regulations, the four-time world champion is already back on track.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no F1 running on the agenda, though, it\u2019s GT3 machinery instead. This week, Verstappen is at Estoril in Portugal, getting to grips with a Mercedes-AMG GT3 run by 2Seas Motorsport. Two cars are reportedly taking part, carrying numbers 33 and 333.<\/p>\n Among those sharing the driving duties with Verstappen is Jules Gounon, a Mercedes-AMG factory driver who knows the car inside out, having won both the GT World Challenge Europe and the Spa 24 Hours in it.<\/p>\n At the very least, this marks the fifth different race car Verstappen has driven this year, after the Red Bull RB21, Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS, Ferrari 296 GT3 and Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3. And there may well have been others besides.<\/p>\n What will Verstappen’s team do in 2026?<\/p>\n If the name 2Seas Motorsport doesn\u2019t immediately ring a bell, it\u2019s far from unfamiliar to Verstappen. Based in Silverstone but flying the Bahraini flag, the team ran the Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 that carried Lulham (a sim racing driver from Verstappen\u2019s Redline squad) and Thierry Vermeulen (son of Verstappen\u2019s manager) to the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup title in the Gold Cup class this year.<\/p>\n All signs, therefore, point towards Verstappen.com Racing switching from Aston Martin to Mercedes. A move up to the Pro class is also far from out of the question, especially given that Gounon \u2013 a Mercedes-AMG works driver \u2013 is sharing track time with Verstappen this week.<\/p>\n Gounon, who also represents Alpine in the Hypercar class, could line up alongside Lulham and Vermeulen in GT World Challenge Europe next season, which would automatically place the car in the Pro category.<\/p>\n Daniel Juncadella\u2019s name has also been mentioned. In addition to joining Genesis Magma Racing\u2019s hypercar programme, the Spaniard is a simulator driver for the Aston Martin F1 team.<\/p>\n Where does Verstappen fit into all this?<\/p>\n By completing the DMSB permit required to race a GT3 car on the Nordschleife, Verstappen has made it clear that he intends to compete in the Nurburgring 24 Hours. <\/p>\n Next year\u2019s edition takes place over the weekend of May 16\u201317, with no clash with a Formula 1 grand prix.<\/p>\n Rumours have suggested Verstappen would like to take on the race in a Porsche 911 GT3 R. If winning is the objective, the Dutchman knows he would need the very best alongside him \u2013 most likely Porsche factory drivers.<\/p>\n After all, last year he contested NLS9 in a Ferrari 296 GT3 even though his team was running an Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 in the GT World Challenge. But as things stand, Verstappen has yet to publicly confirm his intentions.<\/p>\n According to the latest paddock whispers, however, the Red Bull star may postpone his N\u00fcrburgring 24 Hours debut, choosing instead to focus on what promises to be a bruising 2026 F1 season. <\/p>\n With an all-new technical regulations package and Red Bull\u2019s switch to Ford power, the competitive order could be shaken up significantly \u2013 and Verstappen may feel his full attention is required elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresh from Formula 1’s title decider, Max Verstappen is already back in a GT car this week. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-351742","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-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351742","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=351742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}