24 Hours of Spa

Because during the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, he confirmed that keeping that freedom was important.

He wants to try the major endurance races while at the peak of his powers, most notably the 24 Hours of Spa, and Red Bull wants to let him keep pursuing those ambitions.

He can want another title and still want room for endurance racing.

I don't know for sure what McLaren and Mercedes would have permitted for sure, whereas with Red Bull we do.

And I'm getting a bit welled up thinking about it right now because that's how important it was to me.

That was, uh, be- before Jules, be- before, um, uh, Huber, uh, be- before, and I feel really bad for the kid that lost his life before the Spa 24 a few years ago.

Before those, Simonson was the first one I saw i- i- you know, in racing.

I know there was others in IndyCar.

You know, you know, there, there are, there are, there are times where i- in motorsport, you know, Hubert's crash as well.

Nothing could've, nothing could've helped Hubert's crash.

Um, I, I think that cr- that, again, that, that lad who died i- in, in the Formula racing before the Spa 24, that could've been prevented with weather.

You know, uh, Bianchi's crash, safety.

[laughs] I, I, I, I, I mean, I'm gonna basically say every 24-hour race.

So 24 Hours Spa, 24 Hours Zolder, 24 Hour Nürburgring, um, 24 Hour Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring.

I think I'd love to do WEC.

I'd love to do GT World Challenge, uh, Europe.

There's every chance that, weirdly enough, Lando Norris could be the next person to do it.

And certainly for the likes of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring and the 24 Hours of Spa, which very much appeal to Max Verstappen, they do not have a clash either.

He said this year won't be a year he's looking at doing Le Mans, but if there is an opportunity further down the line...

He will certainly be looking at it.

That's the F1 calendar.

And the interesting part about the F1 calendar is that it does leave the dates for Spa 24.

Common sense has prevailed.

All blind luck.

Max has been on the record to say yes, interested in going back again to the Nürburgring 24.

It's obviously unfinished business.

He has also mentioned in very positive form Spa 24, and that, by the way, I can tell you, came as something of a surprise to some, even in his inner circle, coming forward to this year, that he's been as vocal about doing that as soon as possible, but has counted out Le Mans.

I think that's, at the moment, he's in a bit of a GT phase, isn't he? He again, if he was going to go, can't see him wanting to do that in LMGT3, can see him wanting to do that in hypercar, but again...

Jack Aitken, 2021, he did it, and the other two in 2018.

Kamui Kobayashi, I believe, is... raced yeah in spa 24 hours and i think he did that while he was a formula one driver you might be right you might be right there'll be more sebastian bordeaux definitely won the 24 hours of spa in 2002 in the viper but that was before he got into formula one um Anyway, you're asking me this

because...

Andre Lotterer and Giancarlo Fisichella both raced at Spa and in Formula 1.

I don't think I ever saw as many people at an event.

Then the Spa 24 Hours keep on growing and growing.

It's really the biggest GT race in the world.

I was last week in Suzuka for the Suzuka 1000 kilometers.

It's not the easiest budget to bring together, but we're doing everything we can.

We launched this SRO Academy, which the winner, if a young driver under 30, there is an internal competition among young drivers and he can win a seat there.

in a full SRO car, entirely paid for at the Spa 24 hours.

So all of this is to motivate, you know, also young drivers to come into GT3 from GT4, because now we have this big group of GT4 and our... we're aiming at that some of them are stepping up and come to and join GT3

In better news, the door is now wide open for Max Verstappen to tackle next year's Bathurst 12-hour in the wake of F1 releasing its 2027 calendar.

Major endurance races including Bathurst 12-hour, Nurburgring 24, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Spa 24 avoid F1 clashes in 2027.

Bathurst 12-hour organizers want Verstappen to race at Bathurst conveniently.

Pre-season F1 testing falls a week and a half after the Mount Panorama endurance race.

Focus on that and depending on how, like you know, we'll be looking for sponsors, we're looking for, depending on all that, 2028 will be, we begin the season in the LMP2 class and that is where I would love to be for the next couple of years.

And in between, try and do some of the 24-hour races like the Spa 24.

What's the other circuit like they had recently? Was it

Silverstone, maybe?

That really doesn't make sense to me.

But they have the new calendar also means that it doesn't clash with the Nürburgring 24 hours, Spa 24 hours or Le Mans.

So I think Max Verstappen who beat 100 go-carters today, if you saw that, I think he will be definitely racing in those as well.

At least the Nürburgring and Spa, I don't think he will do Le Mans unless his car company does a, his own racing team does a Le Mans LM1 or LM2 or something like that.