Jos Verstappen seems to have quashed any expectations of competing with his son Max, the three-time Formula 1 world champion, in the esteemed 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
While Max has been vocal about his ambition to take part in the endurance event after his tenure with Red Bull F1 and expressed a desire to partner with his father in this venture, it appears Jos has other preferences. “My desire is to do Le Mans one day,” Max stated in 2019.
“When it happens, I don’t know. I’m talking to my dad as well so he needs to train a bit. Because if I want to do Le Mans I would like to do it with my dad.”
However, according to a statement on Verstappen.com, Jos, at age 52, shares a different thrill for motorsports, remarking: “I enjoy rallying. Let the young guys race at Le Mans. I find rallying much more exciting.”
This stance marks a shift from his previous comments made to Motorsport-Total in 2020 where he joked about keeping up with his son’s speed and kept future plans open-ended: “Maybe I’ll do it for his sake one day, but I wouldn’t want to just go along for the ride. If I take part, then I also want to win. Otherwise, I’ll leave it alone.”
Max Verstappen may find solace in a potential partnership with F1 colleague Fernando Alonso, who clinched victory at Le Mans with Toyota in 2018 and 2019. “What I do want to race is the 24 Hours of Le Mans,” Verstappen revealed last December when quizzed about his future ambitions.
“I have already been there when my father [Jos] raced in Le Mans. The atmosphere is incredible in Resistencia. There are so many people, driving at night, at dawn – I think it’s really cool. I’ve been talking to Fernando about it. He said he’d just want to do it with me again, so I told him it would be great.
“The only thing is, for Le Mans, there’s no minimum weight for the driver. I’m quite a heavy competitor, so I would have to find light team-mates to compensate.
“But Fernando is quite light so that would be very good for us. But we would need to find another one.”
Le Mans operates on a system where three drivers rotate over the entire 24-hour period. Drivers aren’t permitted to race for more than 14 hours but they must be in the car for at least six hours.
They also can’t drive for more than four hours in a six-hour period.
Le Mans is held annually in June and together with the Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500, it forms the renowned Triple Crown of Motorsport.
