- Marko bans Verstappen from driving a Red Bull F1 car at Nurburgring.
- Verstappen dominates at Nurburgring before tyre rule disqualification.
- Mercedes-AMG team apologises after technical error strips Verstappen.
Max Verstappen had a dream to demo run his F1 Red Bull car in Nurburgring, but unfortunately, Helmut Marko put an end to it, citing it was too dangerous.
Ahead of his 24-hour endurance race in May, Verstappen recently participated in NLS2 and clearly dominated the grid. He earlier became a pole sitter, before clinching the race win by a margin of 59 seconds from his close opponent.
While there was happiness among the spectators that they at least got to see Verstappen’s first win of the season, though in a GT3 car, disappointment soon approached upon his team’s disqualification.
Marko vetoes Verstappen’s Nordschleife dream
In a conversation with F1 Insider, Marko revealed that Verstappen informed him about his plans to lap the Green Hell in his Red Bull Racing F1 car a few years ago. However, he immediately found the idea to be way too dangerous. He said, “Back then, he wanted to do a demonstration run in a Formula 1 Red Bull. But that set off all my alarm bells.”
As Verstappen’s dream to race on Nordschleife in an F1 car didn’t feel right, he instantly turned down his plans. “Demonstration run, my foot!” he said before adding, “Max had seen that crazy video of Timo Bernhard breaking the lap record in a Le Mans Porsche.”
He firmly believed that the Dutchman’s competitive mindset would definitely want him to break that lap record in a Red Bull F1 car, which was clearly alarming. Therefore, he banned him from fulfilling his dream as it was too risky.
The NLS2 Disqualification disappointment for Verstappen
Despite a very dominating win at NLS2, Verstappen’s team was ultimately disqualified for breaching the tyre rules. Per the rules, the team was permitted to use only six sets of tyres. As they used seven, their win was nullified, bringing extreme disappointment among fans.
Stefan Wendl, Head of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing, released a statement to address the disqualification shock.
The statement read, “The disappointment was all the greater when we realised that we had made a mistake behind the scenes that morning and the race organisers were forced to disqualify the winning car. That hurts, and naturally everyone involved is very disappointed.”
He stressed how winning at Nordschleife is only possible if everything “comes together.” He revealed that Winward Racing, which was behind the management of the two performative cars, participated in this particular race line-up for the first time.
Now, as a team, they all look forward to analysing the mistakes and taking away the positives from the weekend. They are also focused on the remaining races and the 24-hour endurance race in May, in which Verstappen will also participate.
Now, Verstappen is set to race in the F1 grand prix in Japan, which is scheduled for this weekend, before the sport goes on a hiatus for a month, following the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi GP.
