Verstappen reveals GT racing return
Max Verstappen will get back behind the wheel of a Mercedes GT3 car at Portimao later this month, racing on the only non-F1 weekend in October, in the GT World Challenge Europe series.
Verstappen hasn’t competed in a GT race since he and his Verstappen Racing team were cruelly denied victory on debut at the Nurburgring 24 Hours in May this year by a mechanical failure.
But Verstappen will return to action at Portimao to compete in the final round of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe series on October 18.
Verstappen had previously hinted at Monza that his services as the GT team’s “reserve driver” may be required because the Portimao round clashes with the penultimate round of the World Endurance Championship at Barcelona.
That clash means Verstappen Racing’s regular GT World Challenge Europe drivers Daniel Juncadella (Genesis hypercar driver in WEC) and Jules Gounon (Alpine hypercar WEC driver) can’t race.
So, as he confirmed on Thursday at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Verstappen will take part in the three-hour race alongside Chris Lulham and Ben Barnicoat.
Lulham, close to Verstappen through their simracing exploits at Team Redline and the development of his subsequent real-life racing career under the Verstappen Racing umbrella, has taken part in three weekends in the series so far this year - and drove a Ferrari with Verstappen at the Nurburgring in the NLS series last year.
Long-time GT ace Barnicoat, who has mostly driven for McLaren and Lexus in his GT career (and won the GTD Pro IMSA title in 2024), is a new team-mate for Verstappen - but does have a significant competitive history with Verstappen in karting over a decade ago.
Competing at Portimao means Verstappen will be racing on seven consecutive weekends, with November 14/15 his next 'free' weekend.
Verstappen's F1 peer Fernando Alonso dropped an interesting hint about his own non-F1 plans at Sepang.
“Max is the only one trying to do some GT racing,” Alonso said, perhaps forgetting his own Aston Martin F1 team-mate Lance Stroll raced in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup season opener at Circuit Paul Ricard in April.
“But apart from that I think the challenges that I tried in the past - and I will keep trying because maybe you have more surprises in the next few weeks - there are things that people probably think that are impossible but I want to find the limits of what is possible.”
