Verstappen Racing trades Aston for AMG in GT World Challenge Europe, with Juncadella and Gounon headlining
Max Verstappen’s GT outfit is switching badges. After a season split between Aston Martin and Ferrari machinery, Verstappen Racing has agreed a multi-year partnership to run the Mercedes-AMG GT3 in GT World Challenge Europe from 2026, with the program again operated by 2 Seas Motorsport.
It’s a move that’s been coming. Verstappen sampled an AMG GT3 at Estoril recently, and the feedback clearly landed. The team expanded into GTWCE in 2025 with a dual program: an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo in the Endurance Cup for Thierry Vermeulen, Chris Lulham and Harry King, and a Ferrari 296 GT3 for Vermeulen and Lulham in the Sprint Cup via Emil Frey Racing. Now the reset is clean and decisive — one car, one brand, one direction.
According to multiple reports, Chris Lulham will anchor the Sprint entry alongside Daniel Juncadella, with Jules Gounon joining for Endurance rounds. On paper, that’s heavy artillery. Juncadella is as polished as they come in GT3, and Gounon’s stamina and stint management make him a perennial threat in long-distance trim. The continuity of 2 Seas — an AMG-savvy crew with a winning pedigree — adds familiarity where it matters: setup, pit craft, and the fine print of BoP roulette.
Mercedes-AMG customer racing boss Stefan Wendl welcomed the tie-up. “We are delighted that Verstappen Racing has chosen to field a Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GT World Challenge Europe,” he said. “With 2 Seas Motorsport, the project is supported by a highly experienced team that has already achieved numerous successes and championship titles with our car. Accordingly, we are very pleased about this extremely ambitious and promising project, as well as about another high-calibre entry in both the Sprint and Endurance programmes.”
The optics are fun, too. Verstappen is, of course, Red Bull to the core in Formula 1, but the customer racing world is a different paddock with its own politics and possibilities. It’s not unusual for lineups to crisscross badges — witness Juncadella’s current role tied to Aston Martin’s F1 simulator while stepping into an AMG GT3. GT racing has always been a bit more… cosmopolitan.
The bigger story is intent. What began as Verstappen broadening his horizons in 2025 now looks like a structured, multi-year platform. Narrowing to a single manufacturer should make development simpler, driver prep clearer, and performance more consistent over a season that can turn on tenths and tyre warm-up windows. Expect a leaner calendar, sharper testing focus, and a program built around extracting that last percent from the AMG’s known strengths — traction on corner exit, stability on the brakes, and tyre life when the heat ramps up.
It lands at a moment when Verstappen’s competitive instincts are running white-hot. He just fell two points short of a fifth straight F1 crown in 2025 after a ferocious post-summer charge — six wins on the bounce and a permanent seat on the podium as the year closed — before Lando Norris edged it in the final accounting. The GT play doesn’t steal bandwidth from that fight; rather, it aligns his name with a proper factory-supported effort where the bar is always high and the margins always slim.
Expect livery reveals and a shakedown program to surface once the 2026 GTWCE calendar firms up. The driver core is set, the team is in place, and the car is a proven quantity. The only open question is how quickly Verstappen Racing can turn the switch to AMG from familiarity into results.
If recent history is any guide, not very long.
