Mercedes are letting Max Verstappen pick his own team-mates

An update has emerged over Max Verstappen's 24 Hours of Nurburgring plans as the F1 champion's quartet for the endurance race has started to take shape.

At the end of last year, Max Verstappen.com announced a multi-year partnership with Mercedes-AMG, leading to greater buzz around a 24 Hours attempt.

The 2026 Nurburgring 24 Hours takes place from May 16 until May 17, but Verstappen's place in the iconic endurance event is yet to be confirmed.

While the race itself does not clash with a Formula 1 race weekend, Verstappen cannot take part in any Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) rounds ahead of the Nurburgring 24 Hours, nor in the 24h Qualifiers because of clashes with his full-time racing role with Red Bull.

NLS1 clashes with the Chinese Grand Prix (March 15), NLS2 the Japanese F1 race (March 29) and NLS3 with the Bahrain GP (April 12), while the 24h Qualifiers are the same weekend as the Saudi Arabian GP (April 18–19).

According to Motorsport-Total, Mercedes have made an official request to the NLS to postpone the NLS1 race date, and move it to March 21, the week between China and Japan.

NLS boss Mike Jager said on the postponement: "The request for a possible postponement has now been submitted, but nothing more than that."

What could Verstappen's 24 Hours of Nurburgring team look like?

The report continued, claiming that Verstappen is already beginning to plan his Mercedes team for the 24-hour race himself. This potential list includes DTM runner-up Lucas Auer, sim racer and fellow GT3 winner Chris Lulham, AMG factory driver Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella.

Furthermore, the report named one driver Verstappen allegedly doesn't want in the team— Maro Engel—after a spicy social media exchange when Verstappen set a Nurburgring Nordschleife lap record in a GT3 Ferrari.

Engel wrote on social media: "To the topic of the moment. Few facts to Franz Hermann [Verstappen's pseudonym] GT3 Nordschleife Test: car was run in DTM spec BoP (less weight, more power, lower ride height than NLS BoP). Laptime: 7:48. Still impressive for a first visit to the green hell. Would be cool to see Franz compete!"

Verstappen clapped back on social media: "False. Don’t spread things when you don’t know how the car was set up and our engine settings. Why would I join a NLS track day with the wrong BOP?”

To which Engel responded: "Seems like paddock chat was incorrect then. Your clearly in a better position to tell us what you ran. Thanks and same to you."

Not only could NLS and F1 clashes prevent Verstappen competing in the Nurburgring 24 Hours, but so too could the demands of the 2026 season.

The introduction of new F1 regulations mean it may be wiser for Verstappen to focus all of his attention on F1 instead of dividing his attentions, especially if Red Bull are not quite as competitive to begin with.

Still, the 28-year-old continues to prepare for any future attempt, testing the Mercedes-AMG GT3 used by 2 Seas in Portimao to gain further mileage prior to the RB22 launch in Detroit earlier this month.

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