{"id":369043,"date":"2025-12-24T15:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T15:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/369043\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T15:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T15:03:10","slug":"verstappens-gt-team-switches-to-mercedes-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/369043\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen’s GT team switches to Mercedes for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen’s sportscar team Verstappen Racing has inked a multi-year deal with Mercedes-AMG from 2026.<\/p>\n

Verstappen Racing will compete in both legs of GT World Challenge Europe as part of the partnership, racing a single Mercedes-AMG GT3 in each category.<\/p>\n

In GTWCE\u2019s Sprint Cup, sim racing driver Chris Lulham will return for a second season, teaming up with Genesis\u2019 Hypercar signing Daniel Juncadella<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As was the case in 2025, the team will be operated by 2 Seas Motorsport, an Anglo-Bahraini squad run by Verstappen\u2019s close friend Nick Cristofaro.<\/p>\n

Lulham and Juncadella will also spearhead Verstappen Racing\u2019s Endurance Cup programme, where they will be joined by Mercedes factory driver Jules Gounon<\/a> in a three-driver crew.<\/p>\n

The switch to Mercedes machinery follows Verstappen testing an AMG GT3 himself in a private setting at Estoril earlier this month.<\/p>\n

This year, his team raced an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in the Sprint Cup, while supporting Lulham in a Ferrari 296 GT3 entered by Emil Frey in the Endurance Cup.<\/p>\n

\"#33 <\/p>\n

#33 Verstappen.com Racing \/ 2 Seas Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO: Harry King, Chris Lulham, Thierry Vermeulen<\/p>\n

Photo by: Eric Le Galliot<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted that Verstappen Racing has chosen to compete in the GT World Challenge Europe with a Mercedes-AMG GT3,\u201d said Mercedes customer racing head Stefan Wendl.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project is supported by 2 Seas Motorsport, a very experienced team that has already achieved numerous successes and championship titles with our car.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are therefore very pleased with this extremely ambitious and promising project, with top-level participation in both the Sprint and Endurance programs of the GT World Challenge Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen is understood to be eyeing an entry into the Nurburgring 24 Hours as a driver next year, with established Mercedes GT squad Winward understood to be his primary choice for the Eifel classic.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old won on his debut NLS outing in September, racing Emil Frey’s Ferrari 296 GT3 with Lulham.<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s announcement made no mention of his protege Thierry Vermeulen, who has been carrying Verstappen Racing’s colours in the DTM for the last three years.<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen’s sportscar team Verstappen Racing has inked a multi-year deal with Mercedes-AMG from 2026. Verstappen Racing will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,165556,85,199903],"class_list":["post-369043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-gt-world-challenge-europe-endurance","tag-sports","tag-verstappens-gt-team-switches-to-mercedes-for-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369043","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=369043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}