{"id":666579,"date":"2026-05-12T18:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/666579\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T18:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:57:08","slug":"max-verstappen-sets-clear-target-for-highly-anticipated-nurburgring-24-hours-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/666579\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen sets clear target for highly anticipated Nurburgring 24 Hours debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Four-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen has set himself the ambitious target of winning the Nurburgring 24 Hours at the first attempt.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/teams\/red-bull-racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Red Bull <\/a>F1 driver will make his debut at the prestigious 24 Hour race at the legendary German circuit this weekend as part of a stacked GT3 field.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/racer\/852\/max-verstappen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Verstappen <\/a>will contest the gruelling 24-hour race in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 decked out in Red Bull colours under \u2018Verstappen Racing\u2019 alongside team-mates Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Lucas Auer.<\/p>\n<p>And Verstappen has made it clear he wants to compete for overall victory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuccess is winning. That\u2019s very simple. That\u2019s why we\u2019re here. Of course I know it\u2019s not going to be easy but that\u2019s the target,\u201d Verstappen said.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut at the same time I\u2019m also just looking forward to the whole experience, sharing the car with my team-mates, working throughout that whole weekend and just see what we can do really.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old Dutchman added: \u201cI think what inspired me the most is just that it is one of the best tracks in the world, or the craziest track in the world that you can race at.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s one of the special races that you want to compete in and win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen has been preparing for the showpiece 24 hour-race on the simulator, as well as taking part in several shorter races at the Nurburgring in recent months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s where it all started for me, on the simulator, to learn the track,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve done thousands of laps, I\u2019ve competed on multiple 24 hour races as well around here in the sim world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo when I went out here for the first time in real life, to know the track and where to go was not the issue anymore.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was all about just understanding the new kerbs, or the grip levels, because every year new tarmac is laid in certain places. Then of course understanding the real car with the G-Forces and the compressions and stuff like that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut for sure the sim racing helped a lot to immediately be on pace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked what he anticipates will be the biggest challenge, Verstappen replied: \u201cIt can be anything, really. Dealing with traffic, you don\u2019t know what happens with your car, or whatever.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Conditions before, is there rain or not, that will make it a lot harder. If it\u2019s fully dry and beautiful, then it\u2019s a different. You are just trying to go as fast as you can without taking too many risks. But we\u2019ll deal with that on the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why we are doing the preparation races before the 24. That\u2019s where you learn the most [about] dealing with traffic, flags, and of course pit stops, changing the seat and the driver, that is of course very useful. That\u2019s why you do these shorter races around here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen has set himself the ambitious target of winning the Nurburgring 24&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,825,806,805,803,804,918,85],"class_list":["post-666579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-red-bull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666579","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=666579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}