No Nürburgring Nordschleife for Max Verstappen! The Dutchman reveals that Red Bull has banned him from taking part in the team’s Formula 1 demo drive on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife as part of the Nürburgring 12 Hours of the Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS) in September.
Red Bull announced this week that four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel will compete alongside Daniel Ricciardo in September’s special event at the world-famous circuit.
Vettel will drive the 2011 RB7 that won him the title that year, while Ricciardo will compete in the following year’s RB8. It will be the first time a Formula 1 car has raced at the legendary track since the 2013 Mercedes Demorun.
Ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, Verstappen says the idea of participating was briefly discussed with Red Bull’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, but was quickly dropped. “I wanted to do it, but Helmut didn’t allow me to do it,” said Verstappen. “He knew that I would try to push myself to the limit. I would have liked to have done it.”
Although Verstappen would likely have enough clout within Red Bull to change his bosses’ minds, he says he doesn’t see much point in pursuing the matter any further.
“I don’t want to cause unnecessary problems,” he explains. “I had heard that this was going to come up. Helmut was at the table when it was brought up and he said, ‘No, no, no, you don’t do it!'”
Verstappen: “I would have tried it”
While the demo laps for Vettel and Ricciardo are purely for show, Verstappen admits that the temptation would have been great to attempt a record on the track. The current all-time record on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife is 5:19.546 minutes, set by Timo Bernhard in 2018 in the Porsche 919 Evo.
“I would have definitely tried it,” says Verstappen with a smile. “But you don’t need the demo tires [mit denen die Teams fahren müssen]but correct [Renn-] tires, which is not allowed.”
Verstappen also believes that the dangers of racing on the Nordschleife in an old car are not dramatically different from those at other Formula 1 circuits: “It’s here too [auf dem Circuit Gilles Villeneuve] to drive risky. It just depends on how you hit a wall. Of course that’s not the plan. But hopefully one day I can drive on the Nordschleife.”
When asked which car he would like to drive in, he said: “Ideally that would be fantastic in an F1 car. But if it’s not allowed in an F1 car, then maybe one day in a GT3 car.”