Verstappen, a March to forget
Max Verstappen he had sought in the NLS series those satisfactions that, both in terms of results and entertainment, he lacked in Formula 1. March, however, seems like a haunted month for the four-time world champion: after having collected only eight points in Australia and having remained empty in China, the Super Max team was disqualified from the 4 Hours of the Nürburgring after a dominant pole position and an authoritative victory with almost a minute ahead of the rest of the competition.
The Mercedes GT3 of the Verstappen Racing team in fact violated the regulations, using seven sets of tires between qualifying and the race, one over the permitted limit. A procedural error in the garage emerged thanks to the technical commission’s monitoring system, which mocks not only Super Max but also his teammates Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon, and undermines the team’s efforts.
Wendl’s words
While team principal Christian Hohenadel Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing manager Stefan Wendl commented: “The NLS weekend will remain in our memories for a long time, we witnessed authentic racing on the track, experienced an extraordinary day in terms of atmosphere and were initially thrilled with the victory. The disappointment was even greater when we realized we had made a mistake, and the race organizers were forced to disqualify the winning car. It’s painful and, of course, everyone involved is very disappointed“.
“This proves once again that you can only win on the Nordschleife if everything goes right. Winward Racing, who managed the use of the two Performance cars, were competing with this line-up for the first time in the NLS“he added.”Now we need to analyze the mistakes, but also draw positive lessons from the weekend and focus on the remaining preparation races and the 24 Hours“.
