2 weeks Ago By Elizabeth Blackstock
Ahead of the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix, Max Verstappen was one of several Honda-affiliated drivers invited to test some of the automaker’s best American racing technology — including the ARX-06 that competes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Will we see Verstappen behind the wheel of an IMSA hypercar? The four-time World Champion teased exactly that in a video recently released by Honda Racing US on YouTube. Ahead of the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix, Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) hosted an impressive pow-wow that brought together some of the company’s best drivers and cars all in one place.
Honda turned up to the Las Vegas Speedway’s outside road course with its Acura ARX-06 from IMSA, its IndyCar hybrid, its Acura Integra DE5 racer, and its Honda CR-V ‘Beast’, a road car outfitted with a monstrous 800-hp IndyCar hybrid engine. Verstappen had a shot in the ARX-06, which is Acura’s LMDh racer that competes in both IMSA and the World Endurance Championship. Liam Lawson took charge of the Integra DE5, with Yuki Tsunoda sampling the Indy car and Sergio Perez the Beast.
Now, a recent video from Honda Racing US digs deeper into Verstappen’s big test — including his interest in racing a GTP hypercar in the future. 👉 Ranked: Max Verstappen’s top 10 F1 Grand Prix victories 👉 Max Verstappen v. The World: How the Red Bull driver stacks up against his teammates In the ‘behind-the-scenes’ clip of Verstappen testing the ARX-06, he gained insight from IMSA racer Colin Braun on how handle the racer — and how to get behind the wheel.
After sitting down and swinging his legs in, Verstappen joked, “I need to practice for the future. I need to get in a bit faster!” Even though the ‘test’ was firmly a demonstration run, Verstappen returned to the pits for a comprehensive debrief in order to better understand how to handle the nuance of the hybrid racer before he headed back out on track. Speaking to media assembled at the event, and reported by The Drive , Verstappen admitted: “I follow the series anyway, WEC and IMSA, quite a few of my friends race there but [I] have never driven one so to get a first feel for it here was very enjoyable.
“Of course, I have driven these cars on the sim before, but to get the feeling in real life was really cool.” Naturally, everyone was curious about Verstappen’s future career path — and he was adamant that he intends to compete in endurance racing at some point in the future after being asked if trying out the GTP “teases” him to race it in real life. “It’s not about teasing, I know I want to do it in the future, it’s just finding the time,” Verstappen said, as reported in The Drive.
“With the busy schedule, it’s almost impossible. We finish [F1] so late in the season and then to properly prepare before heading to Daytona [in January] is really impossible. “I know I want to do it but when I do it I want and try to win it, and the only way to do it is to do proper testing — which is not possible at the moment.
“But who knows, maybe in a few years time. I will still be young-ish.” Read next: Verstappen reveals Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston Martin interest in future update.
