Max Verstappen's Bad Luck This Season Has Carried Over Outside Of F1
The four-time champ has been having a rough couple of weeks.
It has not been a fun start to the Formula 1 season for Red Bull's Max Verstappen, but, unfortunately, the misfortune followed him to his other racing endeavors.
It's an off-week for Formula 1 ahead of next weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, and during the break, Verstappen decided to do some racing.
He's going to be taking part in the Nürburgring 24 Hours in May and was getting some track time this weekend in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie's four-hour GT3 race alongside his Verstappen Racing teammates Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon.
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Verstappen won a GT3 race last September in a Ferrari 296 GT3, and on Saturday he drove the team's Mercedes-AMG GT3 across the finish line with just under a minute lead over the next car.
In a four-hour race, that's big.
The team celebrated the four-time F1 champ's second career GT3 win, but after the race, there was a problem.
A big one.
According to ESPN, the team was found to have used seven sets of tires during the race. The rules only allow six.
We've got to assume it was just a mistake, but it might help explain that massive margin of victory.
That cost the team the win, which means Verstappen just can't catch a break.
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Over at his day job, the Dutchman started the season by crashing out of Qualifying in the Australian Grand Prix and having to race from the back of the field, ultimately finishing P6 in a solid recovery drive.
Then in China, Verstappen finished the Sprint just outside the points in P9, then in the Grand Prix, he retired from the race with a power unit issue.
It's been rough, and Verstappen has been one of the most vocal critics of the new technical and engine regulations, even going so far as to joke that he has replaced his racing sim with Mario Kart.