Max Verstappen could race WEC hypercars "in a few…

Factory BMW driver Robin Frijns expects Max Verstappen to make the switch to the World Endurance Championship in the future, with Hypercar likely to be his preferred category.

Frijns recently returned to the Nurburgring-Nordschleife for the third round of the Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS). Together with Marco Wittmann and Phillip Eng, he competed in the Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 Evo and won the race with a 21-second margin over the Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Ayhancan Guven and Matt Campbell.

At this year's Nurburgring 24 Hours, which is scheduled from 14-17 May, Frijns will also face competition from fellow Dutchman Verstappen. The four-time Formula 1 champion has already competed in two GT3 races on the Nordschleife and will add two more this weekend during the qualifying races.

Frijns understands why Verstappen is increasing devoting more time to sportscar racing.

“In his position, I would do the same,” the 34-year-old told Motorsport.com. “I don’t think he’s really enjoying himself in Formula 1 at the moment, given the position he’s in. When you look at the cars and how you have to drive them, I don’t think I would enjoy it much either. But then again, I’m not in that position, so I can’t really judge.”

“GT3 has always been something that has attracted him,” Frijns added. “So if he can do the Nurburgring 24 Hours, he’ll do it. And he’s also built his own team, so I think he gets a lot of enjoyment out of that.”

Boost for endurance racing

Although it will be Verstappen’s first participation in the Nurburgring 24 Hours, Frijns already sees the Winward-run team - consisting of Jules Gounon, Daniel Juncadella and Lucas Auer - as a strong contender for overall victory in the SP9 class.

“Yes, absolutely,” Frijns stressed when asked if he considers Verstappen a serious threat.

“If he does something, he does it properly. With the Mercedes, he has a very strong package, so he’ll definitely be going for the win - 100%.”

#3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool)

Partly thanks to Verstappen’s appearances in the NLS, endurance racing has received increased attention lately. Frijns hopes that this momentum will also benefit the WEC, where he drives the BMW M V8 Hybrid LMDh alongside former DTM star Rene Rast.

“I hope the WEC starts to grow a bit more again,” said Frijns. “Of course, you have races like Imola, Spa especially, and Le Mans, where you get big crowds. But if you go to other events, like the last race in Bahrain, it’s a bit on the decline. Then it picks up again at the start of the season. So if a big name like Verstappen gets involved in WEC, it could give it a really strong boost.”

No issues adapting to Hypercar

Asked whether he sees Verstappen competing in WEC in the future, Frijns replied: “I think so. I don’t know him that well - I speak to him occasionally, I actually have more contact with Jos [Verstappen] than with Max. But I do see him racing in WEC in a few years. More in Hypercar than in LMGT3.”

According to Frijns, there is a logical reason for that: “You want to race in the top class - at least, that’s how I see it. Personally, I’m not that big a fan of GT3; he is.

"GT3 has always been a car I’ve struggled with a bit. The car is too heavy and I need downforce. Hypercars don’t have as much downforce as the old LMP1 cars, but the more downforce I have, the better I feel in a car.”

#20 BMW M Hybrid V8 (Photo by: FIA WEC / DPPI)

Like Formula 1, hypercars are complex machines that are extremely fast - very different from GT3 cars, where speeds and downforce levels are lower. Still, Frijns does not expect Verstappen to have any issues adapting.

“I think Formula 1 is actually more complicated in that respect right now,” he said. “With all the systems they have, like the MGU-K… In that sense, the fundamentals of a hypercar are fairly consistent.”

Frijns added that moving from Formula 1 to GT3 is becoming “simpler and simpler”, before adding “I don’t think Max would struggle to get up to speed in a hypercar or need 10 days to be fast. I just don’t see that happening.”