Max Verstappen is using Formula 1’s rare April pause exactly how you’d expect: by trying to get more racing done, not less.
With no grands prix scheduled this month, the Red Bull driver has confirmed he’s targeting the Nürburgring 24 Hours qualifiers on 17–19 April, stepping into the Verstappen Racing Mercedes GT3 alongside Austria’s Lucas Auer. It’s a practical decision as much as an indulgent one — and it underlines how seriously Verstappen is treating his expanding GT programme.
Asked in Suzuka what his April looked like, Verstappen ruled out NLS round three straight away. Not because of any scheduling clash with F1, but because the people he needs around him are already committed elsewhere.
“NLS3 not, because my team is racing in Paul Ricard, so we cannot do that,” he said.
That Paul Ricard commitment is the GT World Challenge Europe season opener, running 11–12 April. Verstappen won’t be in that race himself, but the same ecosystem of engineers, mechanics and support staff inevitably overlaps. When you’re trying to build something beyond a one-off guest appearance — and Verstappen clearly is — you can’t just parachute into every event and assume the infrastructure will magically follow.
The qualifiers, however, are different. Verstappen sounded less like a driver chasing a hobby and more like a team-mate doing the maths.
“Qualifies at the moment is only Lucas on the car. So I would feel a bit sorry for him if he has to do everything by himself!” he said. “Because Dani and Jules cannot do it. So it would make sense if I can do it.”
That matters because Verstappen is heading towards his Nürburgring 24 Hours debut in May, and the run-in has already been busier — and messier — than he’d have liked. He recently returned to the Nordschleife for NLS round two with Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella, producing what looked like a statement performance until it unravelled after the flag.
The car was disqualified due to a tyre allocation mix-up: seven sets used, one beyond the maximum of six. The result was wiped away, but the weekend still served its main purpose — more laps, more understanding, more calibration of how Verstappen wants to operate in a discipline that doesn’t bend to F1’s rhythms.
That’s the thread running through all of this. Verstappen isn’t just doing GT racing because it’s fun (though it clearly is). He’s building competence in an environment where success is shaped by traffic management, multi-class instincts, long-run behaviour and the kind of collaborative driving that Formula 1 rarely demands. The Nürburgring, especially, has a way of punishing any hint of casual involvement.
And there’s also the unspoken context Verstappen doesn’t bother dressing up anymore: 2026 in F1 hasn’t exactly captured his imagination.
He’s been open about his dissatisfaction with the new regulations, and it’s telling that when the conversation turned to whether these “extra-curricular” outings are giving him something more fulfilling right now, his answer came back instantly.
“That brings a big smile on my face,” Verstappen said.
It’s hard not to read that as a small but pointed contrast. In F1, Verstappen remains the reference point in the paddock — the driver everyone measures themselves against, the one who can still shift a weekend with a single lap. But his tone changes when he talks about the Nordschleife: less guarded, less political, more like a racer talking about racing.
The qualifiers should also serve a more immediate purpose for Verstappen and Auer as a pairing. Auer missed NLS2, so any seat time together before the 24 Hours becomes valuable, particularly at a circuit where “learning it” isn’t a neat checklist. Chemistry in the car, shared feedback, agreeing on approach in traffic — it all takes laps, and lots of them.
Meanwhile, Paul Ricard will host its own subplot on the GT side, with Aston Martin F1 driver Lance Stroll making his GT3 debut in the six-hour night race. Stroll will drive the #18 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo alongside Roberto Merhi and Mari Boya.
For Verstappen, though, April is simple: skip NLS3, support the broader programme, and get himself into the Nürburgring qualifiers so Auer isn’t left carrying the workload alone. It’s a very Verstappen way to approach what’s supposed to be “time off” — not as a chance to switch off, but as an opportunity to do the kind of driving that, right now, seems to give him something F1 isn’t.
