F1 champion Max Verstappen receives good news for Nurburgring 24 Hours as rivals 'punished'

Verstappen at the Nurburgring — Photo: © IMAGO

Nurburgring 24 Hours

Max Verstappen receives good news for Nurburgring 24 Hours as rivals 'punished'

Max Verstappen and his Nurburgring 24 Hours team-mates have received a positive update

By Vincent Bruins.

Saturday 16 May 2026 10:36

Four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen has been handed some good news ahead of the Nurburgring 24 Hours this weekend.

The 28-year-old is gearing up to make his debut at the legendary endurance race, which begins at 2pm (BST) on Saturday, May 16, having already tackled qualifying earlier in the week.

And ahead of the 2026 edition of the overnight race, the organisers of the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nurburgring have tweaked the Balance of Performance (BoP) settings.

This change might come as welcome news to Verstappen, as several rivals from the Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, including the Lamborghini currently on pole, have been dialed back.

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BoP is used in GT3 racing to keep the competing cars as close in performance as possible. The grid features cars that are fundamentally different – from the Porsche with its rear-mounted flat-six engine to the Audi powered by a mid-mounted V10 and the Aston Martin sporting a front-mounted turbo-V8.

The goal is to prevent any one manufacturer from dominating, which would lead to skyrocketing development expenses and could ultimately undermine the integrity of GT3 racing.

Adjustments can be made at any point during a race weekend, and this update comes after all the qualifying sessions.

Three cars will have to carry additional weight. The BMW M4 GT3 Evo now weighs an extra ten kilograms, while both the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 – the car of pole-sitter Luca Engstler – and the Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo will compete with an added five kilograms.

The Lamborghini faces even further restrictions. Its engine restrictor has been reduced by half a millimeter, meaning it will produce less power. Similarly, the Ford Mustang now features two restrictors – with the second one reduced by a full millimeter.

In contrast, no changes have been made to Verstappen’s Mercedes-AMG, a situation that also applies to the other AMG models, as well as the Aston Martins, Audis, BMW Z4 GT3s, Ferrari, and McLaren.