Max Verstappen has denied a rival’s claim he enjoyed a car advantage when he set competitive lap times in a recent GT test on the Nurburgring Nordschleife.
The four-times Formula 1 world champion took part in a test at the famed, 14-kilometre track in a Ferrari 296 GT3 car last week. He appeared for his Team Redline squad using a pseudonym, ‘Franz Hermann’.
Afterwards Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko claimed their driver had beaten the lap record for the class by two seconds.
However Maro Engel, a long-time Mercedes driver who races for them in the GT3-based DTM series, claimed Verstappen’s car was not the same specification as that used by other drivers. He said Verstappen’s car used the Balance of Performance specification for the DTM, rather than the Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie [NLS], which conducts 24-hour races on the track.
“[A] few facts to Franz Hermann GT3 Nordschleife test,” stated Engel in a social media post. “[The] car was run in DTM spec BoP (less weight, more power, lower ride height than NLS BoP).
“Lap time: 7’48. Still impressive for a first visit to the green hell. Would be cool to see Franz compete!”
Verstappen, in a rare reply on social media, denied Engel’s claim, calling it: “False.”
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“Don’t spread things when you don’t know how the car was set-up and our engine settings,” he said. “Why would I join a NLS track day with the wrong BoP.”
“Have a good one tomorrow,” Verstappen added. Engel is taking part in qualifying for this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours this weekend.
The Red Bull driver has expressed an interest in taking part in the race in the future. He won a virtual 24-hour race on the course last year in iRacing with Redline team mates Chris Lulham, Florian Lebigre and Diogo Pinto. The event took place during the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix weekend.
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