Max Verstappen's debut appearance in the Nürburgring 24 Hours has led to a sellout of the event for the first time ever.
Verstappen will race at the legendary Nordschleife layout of the circuit this week for CP Racing, driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with teammates Dani Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Lucas Auer.
The event confirmed this week that it has completely sold out of weekend tickets for the first time -- with only limited individual-day tickets remaining for Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
Four-time Formula 1 world champion Verstappen's participation in the event has dramatically increased interest in the event.
The Dutchman has been a vocal critic of F1's new cars and said that his recent forays into sports car racing at the Nürburgring have reminded him of "what real motorsport is like" and that he was jumping out of the car feeling "happy."
By contrast, he has compared F1's new cars to Mario Kart and said they are "anti-racing," given the unprecedented focus on battery harvesting and deployment.
Verstappen's F1 future is up in the air. The Red Bull driver has openly talked about the prospect of quitting F1 at the end of the current season.
Sources have told ESPN he does not need to make a decision until October of this year -- it seems likely given Red Bull's poor start to the year and performance relative to its rivals that he will be able to activate performance-related clauses should he want to leave or take a sabbatical.
Red Bull allowed Verstappen to race in a sports car event at the Nürburgring last year to keep him happy at a time when he was already growing frustrated with the state of things in F1.
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The Nürburgring event was first held in 1970.
The circuit used to host F1 races -- the Nordschleife is where Niki Lauda had his infamous nearly fatal crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix.
Due to safety concerns, F1 races at the Nürburgring in recent years were held on the Grand Prix layout. The circuit stood in during the 2020 pandemic-shortened season as the Eifel Grand Prix.
