The first day of testing for the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup in Portim\u00e3o is now behind four-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen. The Dutchman is sharing the Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Chris Lulham and Ben Barnicoat. The trio finished the test in second place thanks to a lap time set by Chris Lulham. Max Verstappen\u2019s focus during the test was on gaining experience and collecting data.<\/p>\n
Max, what was your initial reaction to taking part in this weekend\u2019s GT World Challenge race?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always enjoyed visiting Portugal and spending time here with friends and my family. When I saw that there was a clash of dates (between the GT World Challenge and the FIA WEC), I thought to myself: \u2018I\u2019d love to step in!\u2019 It\u2019s a brilliant circuit and a great setting for fans and families. It\u2019s a really lovely place.\u201d<\/p>\n
You got behind the wheel during the test. How did it go?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt went quite well. Of course, my points of reference are from the N\u00fcrburgring Nordschleife, so it took me a bit to get used to driving on this circuit. But the Mercedes-AMG GT3 is very well-balanced and has proven over recent years that it\u2019s also very competitive. Today we just fine-tuned a few details. It\u2019s still quite hot for this time of year, and you have to take that into account as well. Naturally, you want to drive faster; you want to do better. I\u2019m just getting into my stride myself, and the more laps I do, the better it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
What do you think of the GT3 as a concept? The field is very evenly matched across many manufacturers\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely. For me, it\u2019s also the endurance aspect. Sharing a car with team-mates is something I haven\u2019t really done in my career so far. Of course, I got a taste of it on the Nordschleife and I really enjoyed it. It\u2019s exciting that I\u2019m now getting my first opportunity to do so here in the GT World Challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of team-mates: you\u2019ve raced against Ben Barnicoat in the past, haven\u2019t you?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe often raced against each other in karting. Then our careers took different paths, but it\u2019s nice to catch up again, and it\u2019s great that we can share the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
And what about Chris Lulham?<\/p>\n
\u201cChris is someone I\u2019ve worked with for a long time in the sim racing scene, and now he\u2019s here racing in real races. With every race, he\u2019s making further progress, getting better, gaining more and more experience and proving himself amongst the big names in the paddock.\u201d<\/p>\n
What do you think, in general, of the standard of the drivers in the GT World Challenge?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe standard is very high. I\u2019ve raced against some of them before, back when we were younger. Some are a bit older than me, but have already achieved a lot on the world stage. I think the standard shows why there are so many cars on the grid: people want to compete in one of the top GT championships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex Palou competed in the Indy 8 Hour last week and could hardly believe how close the competition was\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, that\u2019s just how it is. There are so many good drivers with so much experience, and they drive these GT3 cars day in, day out. So it\u2019s only natural that the gaps are very small. I step out of my comfort zone a bit when driving this sort of car, but I love it. I love competing in all sorts of categories. As for Alex: I\u2019ve already raced against him online. We haven\u2019t raced together in real life yet, but I hope we\u2019ll be able to do that one day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next year there won\u2019t be a clash between the Formula 1 calendar and the Spa 24 Hours. Might we see you there?<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Spa, of course, so I\u2019ll try to make it work, as I want to arrive well prepared. I\u2019ll do my best to be there. It\u2019s close to the Dutch border, and I\u2019m half Belgian, after all. It would be great for me to be there and compete in one of the biggest endurance races of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
And finally: what\u2019s the aim for this weekend?<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have fun, obviously, but my competitive spirit naturally wants things to go well too, doesn\u2019t it? We\u2019re here to win. That\u2019s always the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first day of testing for the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup in Portim\u00e3o is now behind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-935061","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935061","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=935061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}