Verstappen confirms Le Mans talks with Ricciardo but warns proper prep is non-negotiable

Max Verstappen has confirmed that a potential Le Mans partnership with Daniel Ricciardo is more than just idle talk, revealing the two former Red Bull team-mates have already held private discussions about a one-off entry at the endurance classic.

The conversation became public after Ricciardo, speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast, named Verstappen as his first pick for a dream Le Mans line-up — alongside Sebastian Vettel — describing it as a “nice little Red Bull reunion.” Verstappen, responding to those comments, was characteristically dry: “He’s a smart man to choose me in the car.”

But the four-time world champion was quick to add a significant caveat. “If I want to do it, I want to do it proper with really good prep,” Verstappen said. “And at the moment I cannot do that. I don’t have the time — the free time to dedicate to a Le Mans project with all the other things that I’m also doing outside of Formula 1.”

Verstappen has made no secret of his appetite for endurance racing. He recently competed at Portimão, where he and his team finished ninth, underlining that his interest extends well beyond hypothetical conversations. Yet he was clear that a Le Mans appearance would only be worthwhile if the preparation matched the ambition.

“I think if we do something like that, he will for sure agree that it needs to be proper. It needs to be for a chance to win. For a chance to win against people that do it a whole season, you need to be prepared really well. You just need to find the right timings.”

On Ricciardo’s own appetite for a comeback, Verstappen painted a picture of a driver selectively open to racing rather than seeking a full return. “He doesn’t see himself coming back for a whole season. But the one-offs can interest him. Why not?”

The pair were team-mates at Red Bull from 2016 to 2018 before Ricciardo departed for Renault. Ricciardo’s Beyond the Grid appearance marked the first time he had spoken publicly about racing again in any meaningful way since leaving Formula 1.

“This is not new to me, of course. Yeah, we have spoken,” Verstappen said. “I don’t think we are the types that always need to share everything. We talk about a lot of things in the background.”

Whether those background conversations eventually translate into a shared entry at La Sarthe remains to be seen, but Verstappen’s message was consistent: the idea has genuine appeal, the timing simply has to be right.