How Max Verstappen’s car at the Nurburgring is causing controversy
Max Verstappen and his team have completed qualifying for the Nurburgring 24 Hours and have ensured they will start fourth on the grid.
The 24-hour race is set to start on Saturday at 3pm local time in Germany (2pm in the United Kingdom), with the Dutch driver confident he and his team can secure victory in the race.
Verstappen will be joined in his Mercedes-AMG car by Lucas Auer, Jules Gounon, and Daniel Juncadella for the race.
However, as Motorsport.com have confirmed, the setup of their car is different from other Mercedes in the Nurburgring 24 Hours.
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The differences lay in two key areas, with this coming in the way of its suspension and engine preparations.
It has been reported that the Red Bull-liveried car was not equipped with the Bilstein suspension typically used by Mercedes-AMG on the Nurburgring-Nordschleife.
This is despite AMG previously holding an exclusive agreement with the German suspension manufacturer for its performance team entries in the Eifel.
Verstappen’s car features dampers and springs from Multimatic, and according to Motorsport.com, it was the decision of the four-time F1 world champion to run this suspension setup.
Throughout the paddock, the question of whether this is giving Verstappen and his team an advantage is swirling; however, the sources to Motorsport.com have suggested that there is no performance difference between the two setups.
This, at least to this point following the qualification for the race on Saturday, has proved to be the case, with Verstappen’s team only being able to secure fourth on the grid.
Pole position has gone to a Red Bull-backed car as Luca Engstler in the #84 Lamborghini went fastest in qualifying.
It is a Lamborghini 1-2 on the grid, while Audi's Christopher Haase took third ahead of the Team Verstappen entry.
Juncadella was behind the wheel for the crunch laps in Verstappen’s car and ended up just shy of nine-tenths slower than the benchmark set by Engstler in the Lamborghini.
Topics: Max Verstappen, Formula 1
Brendan McGilligan