{"id":762308,"date":"2026-06-26T11:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T11:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/762308\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T11:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T11:16:11","slug":"max-verstappen-eyes-spa-24-hours-outing-as-he-asks-organisers-to-avoid-f1-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/762308\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen eyes Spa 24 Hours outing as he asks organisers to avoid F1 clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alongside the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/max-verstappen\/17529\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Max Verstappen<\/a> is also keeping an eye on another event in the background this weekend: the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.<\/p>\n<p>The four-time world champion cannot compete himself this time, although he has previously revealed that he would have been on the grid had the Ardennes endurance race not clashed with an F1 weekend.<\/p>\n<p>However, Verstappen Racing does have its own car competing this weekend. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO in Red Bull colours is being driven by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/daniel-juncadella\/11801\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Daniel Juncadella<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/chris-lulham\/957322\/\" data-entitylink-text=\"Chris Lulham\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Lulham<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/jules-gounon\/289205\/\" data-entitylink-text=\"Jules Gounon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jules Gounon<\/a>. The entry secured seventh place in Thursday\u2019s combined qualifying results.<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen is following the action as closely as he can, including watching the sessions on his phone shortly before his written media session in Spielberg began.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, I&#8217;ll try to watch it as much as I can. The car is racing with our drivers, so I&#8217;m very much involved this weekend,\u201d Verstappen said.<\/p>\n<p>This time he is involved as a team owner, but if it were up to him, he would be behind the wheel himself next year.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782472571_650_3-mercedes-amg-team-verstappen.jpg\" alt=\"Verstappen entered the Nurburgring 24 Hours last month\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Verstappen entered the Nurburgring 24 Hours last month<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: ADAC Motorsport<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course, I wish that I could race in Spa as well. I told them already for next year. It would be ideal if they could schedule it outside of a Formula 1 weekend, so let\u2019s see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 24 Hours of Spa is an endurance classic that ranks highly on Verstappen\u2019s wishlist. That is naturally because it is one of his favourite circuits \u2013 in fact his favourite track on the F1 calendar \u2013 but also because it is a race featuring only GT3 machinery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpa is an amazing track and a 24-hour race with only GT cars is something very special.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For precisely those reasons, he has asked the organisers of the GT World Challenge Europe whether it would be possible not to let the 2027 edition clash with an F1 weekend.<\/p>\n<p>When it was suggested that, in theory, the Dutchman could always skip a grand prix if he is not directly involved in the title fight, Verstappen laughed:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m sure that Red Bull will not be very happy with that!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read Also:<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Verstappen would also like to return to the Nordschleife next year for the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring.<\/p>\n<p>In the longer term, naturally alongside a future Le Mans outing, he also has ambitions to compete in the 24 Hours of Daytona in a GT car if the off-season schedule allows for it.<\/p>\n<p>            We want your opinion!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alongside the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen is also keeping an eye on another event in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[45812,49,48,578,270882,576,577,1885,271531,2190,82],"class_list":["post-762308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-austrian-gp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-f1-austrian-grand-prix","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-max-verstappen","tag-max-verstappen-eyes-spa-24-hours-outing-as-he-asks-organisers-to-avoid-f1-clash","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762308","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=762308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}