Verstappen, Wolff Not Fans Of Le Mans Rules

Toto Wolff has joined Formula 1 rival Max Verstappen in voicing his distaste for a central principle of the World Endurance Championship.

Quadruple world champion Verstappen has been showing more and more signs recently that he sees a future for himself in GT and even top prototype racing.

Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko says Verstappen, 27, will “definitely not” still be in Formula 1 in his 40s, like Fernando Alonso.

“If he quits Formula 1, he’ll probably be interested in Le Mans,” Marko told Kleine Zeitung newspaper. “And the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring, which appeals to him even more.

“But that’s a farce, as he’s not allowed to race a top-of-the-line car right now. It’s just the German regulations, that don’t care that he’s a four-time world champion or that he smashed the lap record after just three laps in his first test.

“They won’t make an exception for him,” Marko added. “He has to do two tests or two races. But he’ll do that.”

As for Le Mans, Verstappen has also said he’s only really interested if he can compete in the highest category, which would be the prototypes.

However, the Dutchman doesn’t like the ‘balance of performance’ (BOP) rules.

“At the moment, I think it’s too early for me to enter because of the new regulations,” Verstappen said recently “I think they need to sort out the BOP a little bit better. It’s a bit hit and miss at the moment, I find.”

Verstappen also lamented that, at 80kg in full race kit, he would have “no chance” against lighter drivers. “I feel like there needs to be a limit on that,” he said, “because that’s a couple of tenths a lap.”

Currently, Ferrari and Alpine compete at the highest level in the WEC, and McLaren plans to also enter the top-tier hypercar category from 2027.

What about Mercedes? The F1 team’s boss and co-owner, Toto Wolff, says that, like Verstappen, he is no fan of the BOP rules.

“You spend so much time and money and effort in developing the quickest car and then you’re putting 10 kilograms of ballast into it,” he told Bloomberg.

“I just want to build the quickest car,” Wolff added, insisting a better way for the Le Mans-centric category would be a F1-style budget cap.

“There’s still regulations, but (in F1) nobody needs to bluff in pre-season or in qualifying. It’s war, it’s gloves off, pure racing.

“If that was to happen, Le Mans absolutely would be something that we would be looking at. But at the moment, with BOP – having some official judge whether you’re too quick, putting 10kg in your car, taking it out from someone else – it’s not for us at the moment.

“For me, today we are concentrating on the main platform and that is Formula 1. It captures 99 per cent of the audience and everything else comes second.”