Max Verstappen’s Red Bull ‘Plan A’ for 2026 revealed after immense GT3 Nordschleife victory – journalist

Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen secured victory on his GT3 endurance race debut at the Nordschleife last weekend.

Max Verstappen’s debut away from Formula 1 had been touted for some time despite his Red Bull commitments.

Verstappen initially tested under a fake name to try to avoid too much media attention on his racing outings outside of F1.

Timo Glock was immediately impressed with Verstappen, and after earning the correct license to race in GT3 a few weeks ago, he joined Chris Lulham in a four-hour race on Saturday at the iconic Nurburgring.

Racing for his own team in a Ferrari 296 GT3 car, Verstappen and Lulham won the race, opening up a 24-second lead by the time he took the chequered flag.

Red Bull chief advisor Helmut Marko has ruled out Verstappen racing at Le Mans, but that doesn’t mean other extracurricular activities away from Formula 1 aren’t already on the cards.

The four-time F1 champion has always had ambitions to race in other series, and next year might present the perfect opportunity to do so.

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Max Verstappen’s ‘Plan A’ is to race in the Nurburgring 24 Hours in 2026

Journalist Matt Beer was speaking about Verstappen’s future endeavours on The Race F1 YouTube channel.

He explained: “Verstappen has been very open about these NLS races being the precursor to a bid to win the Nurburgring 24 Hours itself.

“That falls neatly in a gap in the 2026 F1 calendar between the Miami and Canadian Grand Prix next May. Although for now at least, Max is being slightly coy on whether he’ll do the 24 hours as early as next year, pointing out he needs to see how his 2026 F1 campaign is going first.

“With the massive rule changes and Red Bull switching to its own in-house engine program in partnership with Ford, you can see why Verstappen might want his bosses to be sure he’s not getting distracted by extracurricular racing.

“But you also already get the sense that it’s a case of a 2026 Nurburgring 24 Hours bid being very much Plan A for Verstappen, and he’d be disappointed to have to postpone it.

“He’s hinted at a few more NLS appearances to prepare for it, too. The 24 hours will be on another level compared to what Verstappen’s experienced in the NLS.

“The major GT racing manufacturers take it extremely seriously. He’ll be up against factory drivers and teams from the likes of BMW, Audi, Porsche, Mercedes, and more.”

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Max Verstappen is now hoping to follow in Fernando Alonso’s shoes outside of Formula 1

The last driver to combine Formula 1 with endurance racing was Fernando Alonso in 2018.

Alonso was enduring a torrid spell racing for McLaren and was allowed to race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year.

He won the race during back-to-back campaigns, with Jenson Button replacing him for a one-off race in Monaco in 2018.

The Spaniard has shown Verstappen that it can be done, but he’ll need to convince Red Bull that he should be allowed to take part in more endurance races, and that could depend on how competitive their car is next year.

Speaking about his win at the weekend to the press, Verstappen said: “The first two stints went really well, the car worked perfectly in the dry.

“We had a bit of bad luck in qualifying, but in the race, everything with the traffic worked out fine. I think I didn’t make any major mistakes in those two stints.

“And to win here on my very first attempt, that’s just fantastic.”