Verstappen open to Le Mans run with Ricciardo but warns timing must be right

Max Verstappen has welcomed Daniel Ricciardo’s suggestion of a joint Le Mans 24 Hours campaign but cautioned that any such project would require serious preparation and the right window in his schedule, speaking ahead of this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

Ricciardo, who has not raced since leaving Formula 1 for the second time after a 2024 season with Red Bull’s sister RB squad, floated the idea on the Beyond the Grid podcast. The Australian named Verstappen and former Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel as his dream trio for a tilt at La Circuit de la Sarthe.

“I don’t want to put pressure on him, but obviously Max is a name that would be high on the list,” Ricciardo said. “We talked about Red Bull obviously in 2018, and what if, and what if; I was trying to get back at the team at the end of my career, so maybe that’s a way that we could give the people what they want.”

Verstappen, asked to respond, was characteristically direct. “He’s a smart man to choose me in the car,” the four-time world champion said. “But we have to see. It just depends on a lot of things. Also for me, if I want to do it, I want to do it properly with really good prep. At the moment I cannot do that. I don’t have 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 is no stranger to endurance racing in principle. He competed in this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours and the GT World Challenge finale at Portimao, and has previously expressed a long-term desire to race at Le Mans. The Dutchman also revealed that Ricciardo’s ambitions were not news to him, confirming the pair had already discussed the idea privately.

“Yeah, we have spoken,” Verstappen said. “But also, I think either from my side or his side, I don’t think we are the types that always need to share everything. We talk about a lot of things in the background.”

Verstappen added that Ricciardo himself understands the standard required to be competitive against full-season endurance specialists. “I think he said it himself — he doesn’t see himself coming back for a whole season but the one-offs can interest him. Why not? But again, 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 timing.”

Ricciardo’s public comments mark the first time he has indicated a desire to return to competitive racing since his F1 departure.