![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790213416_244_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
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\u201cIt\u2019s not just two names in world motorsport. It\u2019s two of the biggest names,\u201d Phelps told Motor Racing 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we revealed earlier in the year, the Bathurst 12 Hour organisers were going to have a crack at getting Max Verstappen over and with the release of the calendar, we\u2019ve got a week-and-a-half either side of the F1 event, so it looks like it\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd not just happen, we\u2019ve had expressions of interest from Max. The moves are underway. He won\u2019t be driving with Broc Feeney in a Ford, as has been reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be in his team – the Verstappen.com racing team – in an AMG. It\u2019s going to be massive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phelps added: \u201cThis one is even bigger and certainly one I didn\u2019t see coming – Kimi Antonelli himself could be on the way over.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn expression of interest has come over on behalf of Kimi\u2019s father Marco. He drives GT3 in Italy and it\u2019s be a lifelong ambition of his to one, drive the mountain, and two, team up with his son.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be a huge story to have that father and son combination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team and Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing talk in parc ferme during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Spain at Madring on September 12, 2026 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Mark Thompson\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
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Verstappen teased coming to Mount Panorama when he was in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like Bathurst,\u201d the Dutchman said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing track and a place that I definitely would like to race at. If that\u2019s going to be in GT3 or V8, I don\u2019t know yet, but for sure that would be something really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Antonelli has not publicly expressed his desire to race at Bathurst, the 20-year-old Italian did tease potentially teaming up with Verstappen at some point in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to do an endurance race with Max together,\u201d Antonelli said earlier this year. \u201cI think that would be really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Verstappen and Antonelli are not the only F1 stars linked with next year\u2019s Bathurst 12 Hour as Aston Martin\u2019s Lance Stroll and Cadillac\u2019s Valterri Bottas have also reportedly expressed their interest.<\/p>\n
The release of next year\u2019s F1 calendar has paved the way for that quartet to potentially come to Bathurst.<\/p>\n
The Bathurst 12 Hour will be staged from February 12-14, while F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain does not take place until February 24-27.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be a huge week for Mount Panorama next February and great news for the organisers of the Bathurst 12 Hour,\u201d Phelps said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of Formula One\u2019s biggest stars might be heading to Australia twice next year. Speaking on Motor Racing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-903159","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903159","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=903159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}