{"id":175599,"date":"2025-06-11T12:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T12:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/175599\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T12:08:09","slug":"max-verstappen-le-mans-24-hours-entry-a-matter-of-time-claims-ex-red-bull-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/175599\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen Le Mans 24 Hours entry ‘a matter of time’, claims ex-Red Bull driver"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e9bastien Buemi believes it is \u201cjust a matter of time\u201d before Max Verstappen enters the 24 Hours of Le Mans, though conditions are \u201cnot ideal yet.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former Toro Rosso driver Buemi, who still works within the Red Bull<\/a> stable as a development driver, revealed he has spoken with the reigning World Champion about the World Endurance Championship, but driver weight remains an issue around a potential entry.<\/p>\n

Buemi: Max Verstappen entering Le Mans \u2018just a matter of time\u2019<\/p>\n

Verstappen<\/a> has long spoken about his ambitions to eventually take part in endurance racing, with this year\u2019s edition of its crown jewel, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, set to take place this weekend at the Circuit de la Sarthe.<\/p>\n

The Red Bull driver has previously expressed concerns about WEC\u2019s Balance of Performance [BoP] rules potentially being a hindering factor behind making such a switch, and Buemi explained that driver weight, or an imbalance between drivers, remains a \u201cbit of an issue\u201d for the Dutchman.<\/p>\n

Buemi, a four-time winner of the race with Toyota, revealed Verstappen hopes to see that problem \u201camended\u201d before he takes part at Le Mans.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged the Formula 1 schedule makes it \u201cvery difficult to commit\u201d to the race, but believes Verstappen\u2019s maiden entry into one of motorsport\u2019s Triple Crown events will happen in time.<\/p>\n

More on Max Verstappen and the 24 Hours of Le Mans<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Revealed: The 19 ex-F1 drivers racing at the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 The three rules the FIA has introduced because of Max Verstappen<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t see him for quite a long time, but the last time we saw each other we discussed about everything,\u201d Buemi told the RacingNews365<\/strong> podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s passionate. He asked me a lot about Formula E, we spoke about WEC. Obviously, I remember I used to talk about the weight between the drivers being a factor also for him to compete, which has been adjusted with the average of the three drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not ideal yet. Obviously, if you are heavy, it\u2019s still a bit of an issue. But that was something he wanted to be clear and amended before he would take part.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m sure, Formula 1 is extremely heavy. It\u2019s a heavy schedule. It\u2019s very difficult to commit to do Le Mans. But I know it\u2019s just a matter of time until he actually does it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen is contracted to Red Bull until the end of the 2028 season, and speaking to media including PlanetF1.com last summer, he explained that combining a Le Mans entry with Formula 1 may not be feasible.<\/p>\n

Asked if combining endurance racing with his current duties could be doable, he said: \u201cNo, not really.\u00a0I don\u2019t think I want to do that, because you want to focus on one thing fully.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou start combining stuff and then you can do only one race, so you\u2019re also not really well prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Marko offers Piastri surprising praise but warns: \u2018not yet\u2019 on Verstappen\u2019s level<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"S\u00e9bastien Buemi believes it is \u201cjust a matter of time\u201d before Max Verstappen enters the 24 Hours of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,225,1073,12,226,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-175599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-max-verstappen","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-red-bull","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114664656359410945","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}