Max Verstappen might race WEC hypercars "in just a few years", says BMW's Robin Frijns

Manufacturing facility BMW driver Robin Frijns expects Max Verstappen to make the swap to the World Endurance Championship sooner or later, with Hypercar prone to be his most well-liked class.

Frijns not too long ago returned to the Nurburgring-Nordschleife for the third spherical of the Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS). Along with Marco Wittmann and Phillip Eng, he competed within the Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 Evo and received the race with a 21-second margin over the Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R pushed by Ayhancan Guven and Matt Campbell.

At this yr’s Nurburgring 24 Hours, which is scheduled from 14-17 Could, Frijns can even face competitors from fellow Dutchman Verstappen. The four-time Formulation 1 champion has already competed in two GT3 races on the Nordschleife and can add two extra this weekend in the course of the qualifying races.

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Frijns understands why Verstappen is growing devoting extra time to sportscar racing.

“In his place, I’d do the identical,” the 34-year-old informed Motorsport.com. “I don’t assume he’s actually having fun with himself in Formulation 1 in the intervening time, given the place he’s in. Whenever you take a look at the vehicles and the way you must drive them, I don’t assume I’d get pleasure from it a lot both. However then once more, I’m not in that place, so I can’t actually choose.”

“GT3 has all the time been one thing that has attracted him,” Frijns added. “So if he can do the Nurburgring 24 Hours, he’ll do it. And he’s additionally constructed his personal group, so I believe he will get numerous enjoyment out of that.”

Increase for endurance racing

Though it is going to be Verstappen’s first participation within the Nurburgring 24 Hours, Frijns already sees the Winward-run group – consisting of Jules Gounon, Daniel Juncadella and Lucas Auer – as a powerful contender for total victory within the SP9 class.

“Sure, completely,” Frijns careworn when requested if he considers Verstappen a severe risk.

“If he does one thing, he does it correctly. With the Mercedes, he has a really sturdy package deal, so he’ll positively be going for the win – 100%.”

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Partly due to Verstappen’s appearances within the NLS, endurance racing has acquired elevated consideration currently. Frijns hopes that this momentum can even profit the WEC, the place he drives the BMW M V8 Hybrid LMDh alongside former DTM star Rene Rast.

“I hope the WEC begins to develop a bit extra once more,” mentioned Frijns. “After all, you may have races like Imola, Spa particularly, and Le Mans, the place you get massive crowds. However when you go to different occasions, just like the final race in Bahrain, it’s a bit on the decline. Then it picks up once more firstly of the season. So if an enormous identify like Verstappen will get concerned in WEC, it might give it a very sturdy enhance.”

No points adapting to Hypercar

Requested whether or not he sees Verstappen competing in WEC sooner or later, Frijns replied: “I believe so. I don’t know him that nicely – I converse to him often, I even have extra contact with Jos [Verstappen] than with Max. However I do see him racing in WEC in just a few years. Extra in Hypercar than in LMGT3.”

In keeping with Frijns, there’s a logical purpose for that: “You need to race within the high class – at the very least, that’s how I see it. Personally, I’m not that massive a fan of GT3; he’s.

“GT3 has all the time been a automobile I’ve struggled with a bit. The automobile is simply too heavy and I want downforce. Hypercars don’t have as a lot downforce because the previous LMP1 vehicles, however the extra downforce I’ve, the higher I really feel in a automobile.”

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Like Formulation 1, hypercars are complicated machines which can be extraordinarily quick – very totally different from GT3 vehicles, the place speeds and downforce ranges are decrease. Nonetheless, Frijns doesn’t anticipate Verstappen to have any points adapting.

“I believe Formulation 1 is definitely extra difficult in that respect proper now,” he mentioned. “With all of the programs they’ve, just like the MGU-Ok… In that sense, the basics of a hypercar are pretty constant.”

Frijns added that transferring from Formulation 1 to GT3 is turning into “less complicated and less complicated”, earlier than including “I don’t assume Max would wrestle to stand up to hurry in a hypercar or want 10 days to be quick. I simply don’t see that occuring.”

Photographs from Imola Prologue

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