{"id":466072,"date":"2026-03-09T14:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T14:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/466072\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T14:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T14:57:12","slug":"verstappen-to-enter-nurburgring-24-hours-with-mercedes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/466072\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen to enter Nurburgring 24 Hours with Mercedes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen<\/a> will tackle the legendary Nurburgring 24 Hours with Mercedes this year.<\/p>\n

Following months of speculation, the Dutchman has been confirmed to make his debut at the German endurance classic on 14-17 May with the factory-supported Winward team, running under the Verstappen Racing banner.<\/p>\n

Verstappen will be joined in the #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 by factory drivers Lucas Auer<\/a> and Jules Gounon<\/a>, plus new Genesis Hypercar signing Daniel Juncadella<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Auer, Gounon and Juncadella all have extensive experience at the Nurburgring Nordschleife, while the latter two drivers also compete as team-mates for 2Seas in GT World Challenge Europe.<\/p>\n

The quartet will make a preparatory outing in this month\u2019s NLS2 race, which has been brought forward by a week to 21 March at Mercedes\u2019 request to allow Verstappen to take part.<\/p>\n

The event had originally been scheduled for 28 March, which would have clashed with the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. Verstappen had made it clear internally that he wanted to complete at least one race in the early part of the NLS to ensure he felt ready for the 24-hour enduro.<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Marcel van Dorst \/ EYE4images \/ NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

His only previous outing at the Nurburgring Nordschleife, last year\u2019s penultimate round in November, was at the wheel of an Emil Frey Ferrari 296 GT3, rather than the Mercedes-AMG GT3 that he will be racing this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Nurburgring is a special place,” Verstappen said. “There\u2019s no other track like it. The 24h Nurburgring is a race that\u2019s been on my bucket list for a long time, so I\u2019m really thrilled we can make it happen now. Last year, I was able to get my DMSB Permit Nordschleife and participate in NLS9, that we won.<\/p>\n

“That preparation is very valuable, as we have learned a lot that we can take into our programme this year with NLS2 and the 24-hour race. We\u2019ve got a strong line-up with Dani, Jules and Lucas and great support from Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG Motorsport. Now it\u2019s about putting in the right preparations before the events, so we can maximise everything in the races.”<\/p>\n

“With our performance line-up, we are excellently positioned for the traditionally strong field of the 24h Nurburgring,” said Mercedes customer racing head Stefan Wendl.<\/p>\n

“Together with RAVENOL and Verstappen Racing, we put together a balanced driver pairing whose different strengths complement each other perfectly.<\/p>\n

“We are very proud that Max Verstappen and his team are also part of the AMG line-up. Together with the operational team Winward Racing and tyre partner Michelin, we have analysed the Mercedes-AMG GT3 in detail once again to tap into further performance potential.<\/p>\n

\"Verstappen <\/p>\n

Verstappen Racing Mercedes AMG GT3<\/p>\n

Photo by: Mercedes-Benz<\/p>\n

“With the start of an intensive test programme in southern Europe at the end of February, the foundation has been laid for a successful outing at the Nurburgring.”<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Mercedes will enter two so-called Performance Teams at the Nordschleife enduro this year, both run by Winward. Apart from the Verstappen Racing entry headlined by the F1 star himself, the German brand will also be represented by a second car run under the Mercedes-AMG Team RAVENOL moniker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maro Engel, Maxime Martin, Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz will form the driver line-up for the #80 Mercedes. Engel was part of the crew that scored Mercedes\u2019 last win at the Nurburgring 24 in 2016, together with Adam Christodoulou, Manuel Metzger and Bernd Schneider.<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen will tackle the legendary Nurburgring 24 Hours with Mercedes this year.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[372,49,50,167133,51,47,52,48,167132],"class_list":["post-466072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-formula-1","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-nls","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-verstappen-to-enter-nurburgring-24-hours-with-mercedes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}