MAX VERSTAPPEN INCLUDES SACKED F1 DRIVER ON IDEAL LE MANS TEAM-MATE SHORTLIST

Max Verstappen has revealed the quartet of drivers who would make up his racing team if he could take on the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Verstappen has revealed the four drivers he’d love to race with at the Le Mans 24 Hours if he was given carte blanche to choose.

Max Verstappen reveals ideal Le Mans driver line-up

Speaking to Jarno Opmeer on the sim racer’s YouTube channel, Verstappen was asked which drivers he’d love to have on his team for the most famous endurance race in the world.

“So, if I look around now, one I would like to have on my team is Nyck de Vries,” the reigning F1 World Champion said, with his compatriot’s short-lived F1 career coming to an end midway through last season as he was dropped from the AlphaTauri driver line-up.

De Vries is part of Toyota’s World Endurance Championship line-up, with his car currently occupying second in the championship standings – the Dutch driver also races in Formula E with Mahindra, and won the title with Mercedes three years ago.

“He’s fast and he’s very light and, when you’re fast and light, around Le Mans, of course, it’s great,” Verstappen said.

Of his current gridmates, Verstappen picked out one of the contemporary Le Mans winners available to him – double F1 World Champion and 2019 Le Mans winner Fernando Alonso getting the nod over 2015 winner Nico Hulkenberg.

“I keep joking with Fernando that we would like to do it together so that would be pretty cool. So that’s three drivers already,” Verstappen said.

The final driver would be one that Verstappen would have to drag kicking and screaming into the car, admitted the Dutch driver, who said his father Jos would be on his ideal driver line-up.

“I keep telling my dad that we have to do it – he doesn’t want to do it, but I would add him in as a fourth,” he said.

“It would be a fun week, that’s for sure!”

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Verstappen senior, who has reignited a motorsport career in recent years with entries into national rallying, has ruled out any chance of taking part in the endurance race.

“I have to be close to him in terms of pure speed. No, I’m just kidding,” Verstappen said in 2020.

“I just like to drive and see what comes out of it. But we haven’t made any plans yet. Maybe I’ll do it for his sake one day, but I wouldn’t want to just go along for the ride. If I take part, then I also want to win. Otherwise, I’ll leave it alone.”

More recently, Jos was firmer in his answer: “No, I enjoy rallying. Let the young guys race at Le Mans; I find rallying much more exciting.”

But as for his son, who regularly takes part in online endurance racing and has long made his admiration for sportscar racing as a discipline clear, Verstappen junior said he would like to see a few changes before taking on the challenge.

“For sure. I mean, I remember when I was like 11, 12 years old, my dad was racing at Le Mans in LMP2 and then LMP1 the year after,” he said when asked whether he’d like to race at Le Mans in a press conference earlier this year.

“It is something pretty incredible. Even at the time, you’re a young kid, but just the whole atmosphere is fantastic – and the team element of it, because it’s not only you, right?

“You have to work together with your teammates to try and find the right compromise with the set-up. I’ve been following it a lot here and there you have a few chats as well.

“But, at the moment, I think it’s too early for me to enter because of the new regulations as well, I think they need to sort out the BOP [Balance of Performance] a little bit better between the cars. It’s a bit hit-and-miss here and there, I find.

“Plus, for me, also the driver’s weight. I feel like there needs to be a limit on that because I might rock up, 80 kilos with kit, but there is also a driver that can be 55 or 60, and I find when you go to Le Mans, you have no chance.

“You know, that already is a couple of tenths a lap. It’s pretty incredible, the difference, so they need to sort that out. There needs to be an average or minimum weight that you need to comply to. But for sure in the future, I would like to race. It’s an incredible event.”1

2024-09-06T14:19:39Z dg43tfdfdgfd