Max Verstappen opens door to 24 Hours of Le Mans appearance

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Max Verstappen admits he would like to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans event in the future.

The prestigious endurance race, which celebrated its centenary event earlier this year as Ferrari claimed a famous win, takes place through the night at the Circuit de la Sarthe in France.

Fernando Alonso won the race with Toyota in 2018 and 2019 and Verstappen hinted he would like to follow his F1 rival and compete in the event in the future – and perhaps even partner up with the Spaniard.

“What I do want to race is the 24 Hours of Le Mans,” Verstappen said.

“I have already been there when my father [Jos] raced in Le Mans. The atmosphere is incredible in Resistencia. There are so many people, driving at night, at dawn – I think it’s really cool.

“I’ve been talking to Fernando [Alonso] about it. He said he’d just want to do it with me again, so I told him it would be great.

“The only thing is, for Le Mans, there’s no minimum weight for the driver. I’m quite a heavy competitor, so I would have to find light teammates to compensate.

“But Fernando is quite light so that would be very good for us. But we would need to find another one…”

Verstappen cruised to his third straight world title this year, winning 19 of 22 races, while Alonso enjoyed a return to form by finishing fourth in the drivers’ standings in his first year for Aston Martin, finishing on the podium eight times.

The 2024 F1 season starts on 2 March with the Bahrain Grand Prix the first of a record-breaking 24 races.