Hook: Max Verstappen, four-time F1 champion, is competing in the 2026 24 Hours of Nürburgring. This is being presented as an event—and that’s where the real story begins. Fifty years ago, a top F1 driver taking part in endurance races was so routine no one bothered writing headlines about it. Now? It’s news. Why have racers stopped being racers?
Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt—these guys weren’t “F1 drivers who sometimes raced elsewhere.” They were racers, and F1 was just one of the stages.
Graham Hill—the only person in history to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport: Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500, and 24 Hours of Le Mans. At the height of his F1 career, he raced in the Indy 500. Imagine: Hill juggled an F1 season with American oval racing—no GPS, no satellite comms, no team of press managers.
Jim Clark (two-time F1 champion) won F1, Indy 500 (1965), and Le Mans (1965, 1968). Died in 1968 in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim—not in F1.
Niki Lauda in the 1970s competed in the Canadian Can-Am series—parallel to his F1 season. It was the Nürburgring (an F1 track) that nearly killed him in 1976 when he crashed into a wall on the Nordschleife. And just 42 days later—with burns covering 2/3 of his body—he was back behind the wheel. These were different kinds of people.
The 1976 F1 calendar: 16 races. Between the Monaco GP (May) and the British GP (July)—a break of over a month. Time for Can-Am, sports car racing, or just a flight to Indianapolis. Fans: “Great weekend, Jim’s here fresh from Le Mans!”
Then everything started to change. F1 became a business. TV rights were worth billions. Teams turned into corporations. Drivers became assets.
1990s: The F1 calendar grew to 16–17 races. But the key change—teams began contractually banning drivers from competing in other series. The wording got harsher: “The driver is not permitted to participate in competitions not sanctioned by the team without written consent.” In 1995, McLaren forbade Hakkinen Sr. from rallying. In the 2000s, Ferrari controlled every day of Mika Häkkinen’s life.
2000s: The number of races kept climbing: 17 → 19 → 20. The logistical load—off the charts. The technical regulations—more complex. Drivers became specialists in a single discipline because there was no time left to learn the nuances of a new car.
Fernando Alonso—a rare exception. Won Le Mans in 2018 and 2019, competed in the Indianapolis 500 (2017, 2019–2022). But even he did it outside the F1 season, with Alpine/Aston Martin’s permission, and every time there were calendar clashes.
The 2026 F1 calendar: 24+ races. The season starts in March, ends in December. Between races—a minimum of one week off (often less). Logistics: teams fly charters across 5 continents. A driver isn’t just a racer anymore—he’s a media asset: sponsorship deals, press conferences, meet-and-greets, simulator sessions, fitness schedules, engineering briefings.
And this brings us back to Verstappen. Max is racing at the Nürburgring in May 2026—before the main F1 onslaught (or during a break). And it’s news. Should it be news?
The 24 Hours of Nürburgring—24 hours on the Nordschleife. 170 turns. 20+ km of track. Elevation changes. Rain, fog, darkness. This isn’t a “GT3 joyride between F1 races”—it’s full-on endurance, demanding a different physique, different preparation, a different mental model. And Max is driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3, not a Red Bull F1 car. A car without power steering, with sequential shifting, brakes that need warming up. A completely different world.
| Era | F1 Races per Season | Driver | Team Control |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 10–12 | Universalist | Minimal |
| 1976 | 16 | Universalist | Soft contracts |
| 1996 | 16 | Specialist | Hard contracts |
| 2026 | 24+ | F1 car + asset | Full control |
We sacrificed sporting identity for commercial efficiency. The 2026 F1 driver is the most prepared, most trained, most technologically equipped racer in history. But he’s chained to one car, one series, one calendar.
Graham Hill would never have signed a 2026 contract. Jim Clark couldn’t have juggled the Indy 500 with an F1 calendar that now demands 300+ days of presence per season.
The Triple Crown (Monaco + Indy + Le Mans) is now impossible for an active F1 driver. Not because of skill—because of the calendar, contracts, and corporate culture. Alain Prost could have won the Indy 500 in 1993, but the Williams team said “no.” It’s not a question of desire—it’s a question of permission.
Verstappen at the Nürburgring is one of the last Mohicans. He’s doing it despite the system, not thanks to it. A Mercedes-AMG GT3, not a Red Bull. A May break in the F1 calendar, not a July gap. The man finds a loophole in the schedule and the contract—and exploits it. A shadow user in the F1 system, if you will.
The history of F1 is simultaneously the history of expanding possibilities (technology, safety, speed) and narrowing horizons (the driver as a brand, the calendar as a conveyor belt). We got Max Verstappen, who’s faster than Hill and Clark on a lap. But Hill and Clark, in a single season, managed to become legends in three different universes.
The modern F1 driver is the perfect component in a perfectly tuned system. The vintage racer was chaos, genius, and a handful of races a year. I’ve got a soft spot for the latter.
🦑 The system optimizes everything except what made racing great.