On a rainy Wednesday track day at Fuji Speedway, four-time Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen test drove a Nissan Z NISMO GT500 painted in Red Bull colours.
He’d just arrived in Japan ahead of the F1 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, off the back of racing in the second round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie – a race that Verstappen and his team would have won, had they not been disqualified for using too many sets of tyres during the race meeting.
Verstappen and Nissan GT500 factory driver Atsushi Miyake took turns behind the wheel of the Red Bull-liveried Z car (speculated, but not yet confirmed to be the former #3 NISMO NDDP car that was decomissioned after the 2025 season) for this promotional test. And during his pre-event media availability in Suzuka, Verstappen admitted interest in one day racing in the Autobacs SUPER GT Series, should his schedule allow for it.
“It was a lot of fun, just a shame that it was raining quite a bit, so I couldn’t do that many laps,” Verstappen said. “I would have liked to do more laps, but it’s a fantastic car, fantastic category in general. And it was a great experience for me to drive that car and feel also the grip in the wet.
“It’s quite different to what we have in Europe – in general, but normally in Europe. And just being able to drive so many different cars is always, I think, a good thing.
“Who knows [about racing]? I need to see. Like I said, it’s a great category. I wish they had a bit more of like a standout one race instead of just a championship. I think if that would be the case, it’s easier to commit to one. I cannot do a whole championship. And to do one race in a championship sometimes is also not the right thing.
“So, we’ll see. I mean, I would love to race these cars. It really reminds me of how the old DTM cars used to be. And that’s what you also really liked watching.”
It is not Verstappen’s first time behind the wheel of a SUPER GT GT500 car: In November 2022, he drove the Honda NSX-GT at Mobility Resort Motegi during the build-up to that year’s Honda Racing Thanks Day.
How cool is this?!@Max33Verstappen got behind the wheel of the Honda NSX-GT today at Motegi 😎#Honda #HondaRacingThanksDay pic.twitter.com/VwCuaLtEP9
— Honda Racing Global (@HondaRacingGLB) November 26, 2022
2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button raced in SUPER GT for two seasons (2018–2019) and won the GT500 title in 2018 with Honda and Team Kunimitsu, while two-time Formula 1 World Champion Fernando Alonso has also test driven a contemporary GT500 car – like Verstappen, he drove at the 2015 Honda Racing Thanks Day, in the NSX Concept-GT.
Quotes courtesy of Chris Medland / RACER.com
Images © Gruppe C Photography / Red Bull Content Pool and Kazuki Ito (kazu23)
