{"id":185001,"date":"2025-10-02T12:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T12:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/185001\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T12:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T12:52:09","slug":"were-all-pretty-jealous-f1-drivers-on-verstappens-nurburgring-outing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/185001\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We’re all pretty jealous’ – F1 drivers on Verstappen’s N\u00fcrburgring outing"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell<\/a> says Formula 1 drivers are \u201cjealous\u201d of Max Verstappen<\/a>\u2019s opportunity to race outside of F1, after the reigning four-time world champion took part in a GT3 outing at the N\u00fcrburgring.<\/p>\n

Verstappen made headlines last weekend when he joined a GT3 field at the N\u00fcrburgring Nordschleife, driving a customer Ferrari 296 GT3 in the four-hour event of the German NLS series.<\/p>\n

His participation at the legendary German circuit drew huge attention, both from fans and fellow drivers.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman delivered a flawless performance in his first competitive outing at the circuit, helping his team secure overall victory, having built up a lead of over one minute before handing over his car to his team-mate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s incredible, to be honest,\u201d said Russell in Singapore on Thursday. \u201cI think we\u2019re all pretty jealous of it because having this freedom of firstly doing what you love in Formula 1, but then also being able to go out and race over things and just enjoy it at your leisure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s quite that straightforward for other people doing it, but you have that right when you win four world championships, and we\u2019re all here fighting to win our first.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe after four championships under our belts, we\u2019ll be able to choose to do the same, but I respect it a lot and definitely I would love to do it one day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s words were echoed by Lando Norris<\/a>, who also expressed admiration for Verstappen\u2019s freedom to compete outside of F1 and his ability to win wherever he races.<\/p>\n

Norris also believes that such freedom comes with the status of a multiple-time champion, but insists Verstappen\u2019s versatility only underlines his quality as a driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool. It\u2019s nice he can go and do what he wants,\u201d said Norris. \u201cI think after you win four world championships, you have a bit more right to just go and choose what you want to do.<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

Verstappen dominated his maiden GT3 race<\/p>\n

\n NLS\n <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows how much Max loves doing all those things. It\u2019s nice that he goes to do something else that he enjoys, but you can do what you want.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how much it adds to your greatness or not, but the fact he can go into any series and be probably the best, I think it does show how good he is and how great he is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said it many times. I think he\u2019s born to be and will forever be one of the best ever, and if not the best in Formula 1. So I think for anyone to have a chance of going up against him and beating him is pretty slim at times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respect it. I think it\u2019s a great thing. If I could go and do it more, maybe I would. But I respect a lot what Max does and I respect Max a lot, like I\u2019ve always said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve not seen any of it, but I love the Nordschleife, so that is probably another place I would love to go and try at one point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esteban Ocon<\/a> added: \u201cAwesome, yeah. I think that was really cool,\u201d said Ocon. \u201cI\u2019ve watched some of it. Obviously, it was a very long race, but I was definitely looking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done some testing and developing on some cars on the Nordschleife last year because I wanted to learn the track and have a feel for myself. I\u2019ve been racing this track on Gran Turismo for years and years and to have seen Max going there and winning the race was obviously incredible, no doubt of how good he is. Remarkable to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n

Russell has no issues with the risks Verstappen takes<\/p>\n

\n Mercedes sees no issues with Verstappen racing outside F1\n <\/p>\n

Williams<\/a> driver Alexander Albon<\/a>, who spent a year competing in the DTM, said racing in different categories can bring tangible benefits even for Formula 1 drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot to be gained from driving different cars and kind of call it a little bit like your vocabulary,\u201d Albon said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell says Formula 1 drivers are \u201cjealous\u201d of Max Verstappen\u2019s opportunity to race outside of F1, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,3024,1885,82],"class_list":["post-185001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-max-verstappen","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}