Max Verstappen will make his debut at an official race on the Nordschleife, but first must pass a test.
Wow. Are there or have there been other F1 drivers who do other kinds of racing during their F1 career?
Now that the calendar has ballooned it’s become a lot rarer but yeah historically drivers were driving in multiple different series in the same season. Most drivers went racing in the southern hemisphere when it was winter in the northern hemisphere, Kubica had a massive shunt driving in WRC2, Jim Clark did sports car racing and when he died he was actually competing in F2
Alonso was excused from the Monaco GP a few years ago so he could go race Le mans.
I think that was the Indy 500, Jenson Button covered and did a wee in his seat
He did a wide variety of things between 2017 and 2020, won le mans twice and the WEC once, competed a couple of times at Indy and the Dakar rally.
It’s not like he had much going for him in the McHonda
Oh yeah, I’m all for it, he was obviously shooting for the triple crown. I’d love to see Hamilton give it a shot too, but I don’t think he’s interested.
Those races are a month apart.
Not often allowed by the teams these days due to the risk of them getting hurt. That started when Stefan Bellof died at Spa doing WEC in 85
Look back to Jim Clark who raced pretty much everything at once. Alonso did daytona 24hr and Indy 500. Lance Stroll did Daytona in 2018. Hulk won Le Mans in 15. Lots of them do Race of Champions. Wehrlien hurt his neck bad flipping a car in ROC Kimi raced snowmobiles and trucks, didn’t often tell the team. Kubica’s F1 career was interrupted by his near fatal rally crash in 2011, 3 days after preseason F1 testing.
Historically drivers have done Indy 500, Le Mans, world Rally championship, etc. it’s not especially common, especially in the modern era with 20+ races a year
Worth noting Indy used to be part of the WDC (though not an F1 race)
Hulkenberg won leman while in F1. And in response FOM shifted the schedule to directly oppose it
There is a reason why Indy 500 and Monaco are the same day.
In the 60s-80s, F1 drivers did many series as there were not many F1 races, i.e. endurance racing, can am, Indy. Now that F1 is major league baseball, they have no no time.
