{"id":970577,"date":"2026-05-19T08:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/970577\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T08:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:05:15","slug":"germanys-f1-absence-under-scrutiny-after-max-verstappen-nurburgring-effect-explodes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/970577\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany\u2019s F1 absence under scrutiny after Max Verstappen N\u00fcrburgring effect explodes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Max Verstappen\u2019s high-profile involvement in the N\u00fcrburgring 24 Hours is something that GT racing and Germany should be \u201cthanking him for\u201d, believes Timo Glock.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The four-time F1 World Champion made use of a weekend off from his day job to head along to Germany to race in the high-profile 24-hour endurance event at the N\u00fcrburgring Nordschleife.<\/p>\n<p>Max Verstappen\u2019s N\u00fcrburgring impact sparks fresh German Grand Prix spotlight<\/p>\n<p>Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=planetf1.com\" target=\"_blank\">preferred source on Google<\/a>\u00a0to your favourites list for news you can trust.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Max Verstappen\u2019s N\u00fcrburgring appearance helped attract huge crowds to the 24 Hours.<\/li>\n<li>German motorsport figures believe Verstappen has boosted attention on GT racing.<\/li>\n<li>The event reignited discussion over Formula 1 potentially returning to Germany.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Verstappen entering the N\u00fcrburgring 24 Hours in a Red Bull-backed Mercedes-AMG GT3, operated by Winward Racing as his own Verstappen Racing entry, boosted the German venue\u2019s attendance to a heaving 352,000 sold tickets over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>This was a marked increase from the official 2025 attendance figure of 280,000, marking a 26 per cent increase just on official ticket sales; the nature of the Nordschleife\u2019s extensive public road network layout means there have been many more ticketless fans in the area of the circuit.<\/p>\n<p>The huge turnout for a GT3 race was in stark contrast to the reality of Germany\u2019s position as a tail-off in F1 interest means that neither of its historic race tracks, either the Hockenheimring or the GP layout of the N\u00fcrburgring, currently hosts a Grand Prix, despite ample German representation through Mercedes and Audi, as well as drivers such as Nico Hulkenberg and the successes of others like Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, and Michael Schumacher over the last 25 years.<\/p>\n<p>With no governmental support, whether at national or regional level, the funding to secure a race on the F1 calendar against the deep pockets of newly interested countries simply isn\u2019t available for either venue, and it\u2019s meant the most recent Grand Prix in Germany was the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix at the N\u00fcrburgring \u2013 a sparsely-attended race due to limited ticketing in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>But the weekend of the 24 Hours proves that, if the ingredients are correct, interest in motorsport remains thriving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, we have 350,000 people showing up\u2026 it\u2019s fully packed!\u201d former F1 driver Timo Glock told PlanetF1.com in an exclusive interview at the start of the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The German, a familiar contributor to Sky Sport Deutschland\u2019s coverage of F1 and the subject of an upcoming 45-minute documentary about his race, said there are a number of factors behind the huge turnout.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s multi-class racing. It\u2019s one of the really old-school tracks, which, every time when I drive here, I say, what an insane place. How crazy it was when they drove F1 cars here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last couple of years, I think that the N\u00fcrburgring boosted itself already, massively. I think the event just got bigger and bigger, year-by-year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the only race-track where you can be right next to the track on a campsite.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think there is nothing else\u2026 maybe Bathurst is maybe a little about the way how it is here, it\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s the \u2018Max Verstappen\u2019 effect that counts the most, Glock believes, and said that German motorsport needs to be thankful to the Dutch driver for shining a light on the sheer quality of racing in the N\u00fcrburgring GT environment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo see Max coming to that place and giving the respect to all the others here, we need to be thankful to him 100 times that he put so much spotlight onto the N\u00fcrburgring, and onto German motorsport, which is unfortunately dying at the moment, officially,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut here you see, it\u2019s still alive. It\u2019s alive, and it\u2019s the biggest event worldwide, that happens in Germany. No one talks about it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, this is down to Max. This is down to because it\u2019s proper racing here, and it\u2019s just a pure event, pure motorsport.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what we try as well with Sky [Germany] to do documentation about the race, and that\u2019s what we try to show the outside world. It\u2019s special. It\u2019s different.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More on the N\u00fcrburgring 24 Hours<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/max-verstappen-nurburgring-24-hours-jules-gounon-message\" target=\"_blank\">Max Verstappen teases next step after N\u00fcrburgring 24 Hours heartbreak<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/mercedes-responds-max-verstappen-team-loses-nurburgring-24-lead\" target=\"_blank\">Mercedes responds as Verstappen Racing suffers N\u00fcrburgring 24 heartbreak<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Speaking later in the weekend, PlanetF1.com asked Verstappen\u2019s teammate Jules Gounon about Glock\u2019s comments on the effect the four-time F1 World Champion is having on the German motorsport scene.<\/p>\n<p>In his opinion, Verstappen\u2019s presence can only continue to convert fans to the true spirit of endurance racing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can only thank Max for putting the spotlight on our category,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA few years back, GT was not maybe well respected, and since Max also joined with his programme in GT World Challenge and so on, I can really see that a lot of fans are converting, and they actually like GT.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause it\u2019s true that GT can be very entertaining. The cars are very close, there\u2019s a lot of fighting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can thank Max, in my case and Dani\u2019s [Juncadella] case, to drive for his team in GT World Challenge, but, like Timo said, to just help us to grow our sport\u2026 it\u2019s something pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029VaUcBxk6BIEcgEnwDi1T\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a>\u00a0to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n<p>You can also subscribe to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@planetf1com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n<p>Read Next:\u00a0<strong><a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/max-verstappen-maro-engel-nurburgring-24-hours\" target=\"_blank\">Max Verstappen rival sets record straight after latest N\u00fcrburgring clash<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen\u2019s high-profile involvement in the N\u00fcrburgring 24 Hours is something that GT racing and Germany should be&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":970578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824,225,1073,12,122477,47800,2970],"class_list":["post-970577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-germany","tag-home-page","tag-max-verstappen","tag-news","tag-popular","tag-timo-glock","tag-uncategorized"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116600211068642407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970577","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=970577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/970578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=970577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=970577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=970577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}