'I hope he's in my car...' - Ex-F1 driver wants Max Verstappen to join him in new form of motorsport
An ex-Formula 1 driver has urged Max Verstappen to compete in a new form of motorsport outside of Formula 1 amid 'regular discussions' with a racing team chief.
Ford Motor Company boss Mark Rushbrook says he has spoken to the four-time F1 champion on numerous occasions over a recent timeframe.
The American car manufacturer returned to F1 ahead of the 2026 season, working in partnership with Red Bull on their Red Bull Powertrains programme.
They have never been involved in the sport as a lone constructor, but have enjoyed significant success in the world of sportscar and endurance racing over the years.
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Ford will enter the hypercar category in the World Endurance Series (WEC) from 2027, including at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
Verstappen will compete in his first 24 Hours of Nurburgring later this month in a GT3 car, and Rushbrook has revealed that he wants the Dutchman to at least have some involvement in his WEC effort.
He told Motorsport.com: "We love Max. We love what he does in the Formula 1 car, on the track. We love him off the track.
"Of course, we have regular discussions with him about, what are the opportunities to do more in sportscar, including Hypercar? He's a racer. He wants to race.
"We're not announcing anything. He wants to go race Le Mans and race for the overall win, but most years the [F1] schedule doesn't allow it, right? While he's a committed Formula 1 driver, most years now it's a conflict.
"I think we're just talking about what the opportunity is and, if and when it makes sense, and everybody wants to do it, then great.
"One of the great things about Max is drivers like him don't come along that often, in terms of what he accomplishes on track, right? But it's how he accomplishes it.
"The amount of detail that he's able to give feedback to the engineers that is so much more valuable than all the data that the engineers have ... just the mental capacity and the bandwidth that he has for developing a car, for racing a car, for turning a car.
"To have a driver like that in your programme, at some point, even if it's only for one race, is pretty meaningful."
Former Williams driver Logan Sargeant competes in the second-tier LMGT3 class in WEC, but will move up to the Hypercar class with Ford from 2027.
And the American says he hopes Verstappen will be his team-mate at some stage.
"If he is driving, I hope he's in my car! That's for sure," he told Motorsport.com.
"In my opinion, Max is the best to ever do it. So if I could share a car with him, that would be a huge privilege and a huge advantage.
"He's the quickest driver in the world. He's going to most likely kick everyone's a**. I'd rather that be in my car than the other!"
"Obviously, he has so much experience from Formula 1. For him, it would just be like plug and play," he continued. "There's so much you can learn from someone like that.
"You don't win four world championships without the speed he has. You see it, even when he's not in the best car, he still finds a way to make it work. That can't be said for everyone."
Verstappen beats Super GT star over one lap
On Saturday, Red Bull posted a challenge video to their YouTube channel which showed Verstappen taking on a professional Japanese Super GT driver over two laps each.
Driving a Super GT300 car - which is similar to the GT3 machine he has been racing at the Nurburgring Nordschleife - the Dutchman was challenged to drive a faster time than Atsushi Miyake, a one-time race winner, across two laps.
The catch was that Verstappen had never driven the car before, while fluctuating weather conditions at the Fuji Speedway circuit added another layer of complexity.
Miyake set a lap time of 1:44.075, before Verstappen beat it by over 1.7 seconds with his time of 1:42.290.
It is not entirely clear as to how much the wet conditions changed during the course of the challenge and whether they were more favourable to Miyake or Verstappen.
But it was still an incredible lap regardless, and again proved Verstappen's versatility across different forms of motorsport.
Topics:Â Max Verstappen, Formula 1, Motorsport, Logan Sargeant
Ryan Smart