Verstappen was not allowed to participate in the Red Bull event at the Nordschleife

Red Bull announced this week that four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has signed to race alongside Daniel Ricciardo during a special event on the famous German circuit in September.

Vettel will drive the 2011 RB7 car with which he won the World Championship that year, while Ricciardo will race in an RB8 from the following season. It will be the first time in ten years that F1 cars will run on this track.

Ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, Verstappen stated that the idea of participating in the “Red Bull Formula Nurburgring” had briefly been discussed with Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s motorsport advisor, before quickly being dismissed. “I wanted to do it, but Helmut didn’t allow me,” explained Verstappen. “He knew I would try to push for negotiations. I would have loved to do it.”

But Verstappen acknowledged that despite the influence he holds within Red Bull, he didn’t see much benefit in going any further. “I didn’t want to create unnecessary problems,” he said. “I heard about this thing, and Helmut was sitting at the table when it was discussed, and he said, ‘No, no, no, you won’t do that!'”

Verstappen would have tried to go for the fastest lap record

While Vettel and Ricciardo’s demonstration runs are purely for entertainment purposes, the double world champion admitted that he would have attempted to beat the lap record.

The current record on the Nordschleife is held by Timo Bernhard, who completed the lap in 5’19″55 seconds behind the wheel of the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo in 2018, thus beating the previous record dating back to 1983. “I would have definitely gone for it,” said the Dutchman with a smile.

Asked about the car he would have liked to drive on the German track, he stated: “It would have been great to drive a Formula 1 car. But if it wasn’t possible, then maybe in a GT3 car.”