World Endurance Racing Champion Sends Warning to Max Verstappen
Former World Endurance Racing Champion Kevin Estre has warned Max Verstappen about the challenges of long-format racing.
After an exciting eight races, the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season came to an end following the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain.
Heading into the race, several cars were in contention for both the Drivers' and Manufacturers' championship.
Among those fighting for the Drivers' championship was Porsche Penske Motorsport car #6, consisting of Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor and Estre, who won the title in the 2024 season.
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Ahead of the race, 2024 champion Estre spoke exclusively to SPORTbible about the challenges of endurance racing, sending a warning to four-time Formula One champion Verstappen ahead of his expected career in the racing discipline.
Back in September, Verstappen made his endurance acing debut at the iconic Nurburgring Nordschleife, racing in a Ferrari for Emil Frey Racing alongside teammate Chris Lulham.
Despite it being his first race in the discipline, Verstappen took an early lead and held it throughout to win the race, overcoming a competitive field of over 100 cars.
Since then, it has heavily been rumoured that the Dutchman will return to endurance racing at some stage in his career, with some suggesting he could compete in the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans next year.
And it's safe to say that Estre was impressed with the Formula One champion's performance at the Nurburgring as he praised him for keeping his cool in what is historically an intimidating circuit.
"He’s been very fast that’s for sure, very strong from the start and no mistakes which is expected but it’s not easy, we all know how hard Nurburgring is," Estre told SPORTbible.
"Everybody was expecting him to be good but he didn’t disappoint."
But the French driver warned that just because he is a dominant force within Formula One, it doesn't mean that he will be able to replicate this success in what is a completely different type of motor racing.
"There’s no doubt that he’s the fastest driver in the world but this kind of racing is very different to what he does in Formula One," Estre claimed.
Unlike a Formula One race, which is referred to by endurance drivers as a 'sprint' discipline, races on the WEC last several hours, with the season calendar ranging from several 6hr races all the way up to 24 hours.
Rather than racing in a single-seater car with one driver assigned to it, WEC squads are made up of three drivers, with at least two used in each race.
The format also sees teams make several pit stops during a race to carry out refuelling and tyre changes and to swap drivers, whereas an F1 race will see just one or two stops.
Therefore, should Verstappen decide to make make the move to WEC sometime in the future, he would have to battle against veterans of the motorsport who are much more familiar with its challenges.
However, Estre admitted that he would revel at the chance to share the track with such a talented and popular driver, not just for himself, but to also bring more eyes to the World Endurance Championship.
He added: "That would be great, we’ve seen many F1 drivers come and it’s always good to fight with drivers who have been at the top of our sport for the mainstream.
"If fans watch WEC, they see drivers who they may not know before fighting with an F1 world champion like Button. So to have Verstappen in the 24 would be great and to fight with him would be nice, I can’t wait."
For many Endurance Racing fans, Estre has been tipped as the one driver that could perhaps perform best against the talents of Verstappen.
But the Porsche driver, admitted that he would also be open to work alongside the 28-year-old to see exactly wha makes a four-time F1 champion tick.
When asked about the possibility, Estre replied: "Of course! He seems to be unbeatable in F1 with all of his teammates so it would be nice to see the way he works and the way he drives in our world and see if he can replace it, no one knows."
But if Estre hopes to race with, or against, Verstappen for an entire season in the WEC, he will have to wait a while as both men are committed to racing in other disciplines next season.
Of course, Verstappen will once again be driving for Red Bull Racing in the highly-anticipated 2026 Formula One season.
Meanwhile Estre has recently signed to race for Porsche Penske Motorsport in their 2026 IMSA GTP lineup, meaning he will compete in endurance races mainly in North America, instead of the global races included in a WEC season.
Topics: Max Verstappen, Formula 1, Spotlight
Ben McCrum