Max Verstappen is having a bumpy stretch in Formula 1 right now. Recent poor results, including a retirement in China and eighth place in the championship, mean the season is not going as smoothly as he or his fans hoped.

To mix things up, Verstappen jumped from single-seaters to GT cars and made his debut in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 at the Nürburgring in the 4 Hours of the NLS. He and his teammates took pole position and crossed the line first, which would have been a neat headline.

Neat, until the paperwork said otherwise. After post-race technical checks, the on-track victory disappeared.

The tyre mistake

The Mercedes-AMG GT3 car number 3, shared by Max Verstappen, Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon, was found not to comply with the rules because of a tyre issue. Winward Racing used seven sets of tyres during the event, but the regulations limit teams to six sets.

The excess set was detected by the tyre monitoring system known as the Tyre App. As a result, the crew was excluded from the final classification and the official victory was handed to the Rowe Racing BMW.

How it happened, according to the team

  • Winward Racing called the issue an internal mistake and said it had heavy consequences for the result.
  • The team noted this was their first outing acting as a Mercedes-AMG Performance outfit at the Nürburgring and expressed regret.
  • They promised a thorough review to prevent the same error ahead of upcoming races, including the 24 Hours of Nürburgring.
  • Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing added that the problem began during the morning qualifying session, when a wrong count occurred during driver and tyre change operations.

Reaction and next steps

The mood in the paddock was understandably disappointed. The mistake happened away from the track during pit operations and paperwork, which highlights how much off-track procedures matter on a complex circuit like the Nordschleife.

Winward Racing will now focus on correcting procedural errors while trying to keep the positives from the weekend. For Verstappen, this episode is another setback to process. He will aim to convert the frustration into motivation, both back in Formula 1 and in his new ventures in GT racing.