Verstappen and Alonso receive light-hearted Le Mans offer to replace Jos
Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen celebrate on the podium at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort
Le Mans 24 Hours legend Tom Kristensen has quipped that he might come out of retirement to race alongside Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso at the endurance event.
It comes after Verstappen’s father, the former F1 driver Jos Verstappen, dropped out of plans to race alongside the Red Bull driver at Le Mans.
Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso looking for new Le Mans team-mate
Four-time F1 World Champion Verstappen has frequently voiced his willingness to try other forms of motorsport in the years to come with an appearance at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans firmly on his radar.
Verstappen had planned to share a car with his father and Alonso, the current Aston Martin driver who won the race twice with Toyota in 2018/19.
However, Verstappen confirmed last week that his father, who will turn 52 next month, no longer has a desire to race at Le Mans.
It means Verstappen and Alonso are looking for a new team-mate to join them for the highlight of the World Endurance Championship calendar.
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And Kristensen, who won Le Mans a record nine times between 1997 and 2003, has offered his services to the pair in a light-hearted quip.
Asked whom Alonso and Verstappen could pick o replace the elder Verstappen, the 57-year-old, known by the nickname Mr Le Mans, told RN365: “I might even put myself [in contention].
“I thought you were leading up to putting myself, but there a lot of great drivers out there.
“If you have Max and Alonso in the car, the third driver needs to be calm and definitely one I would take and choose from sportscars.
“It has to be a top-line driver, a regular, and there are a lot to choose from.
“I will not name anyone now, but if they ask me I will have a few [names].”
Addressing his father’s withdrawal last week, Verstappen revealed that a lightweight driver is his preference with no minimum weight restrictions in place at Le Mans.
Asked about his plans with Alonso, he told the Mirror:?“It’s in the back of our minds. We know that we want to do it.
“[Jos] is still very good at it [but] he doesn’t want to. He just doesn’t want to do it anymore.
“It’s fine, let’s see what happens. A lot of things can happen.
“There are many great drivers that you can pick from [instead]. I have a lot of friends also who race, so it will be hard to pick one.
“The only thing is, for Le Mans, there’s no minimum weight for the driver. I’m quite a heavy competitor, so I would have to find light team-mates to compensate.
“Fernando is quite light so that would be very good for us, but we would need to find another one.”
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One potential option to partner Verstappen and Alonso could be Nyck de Vries, the former AlphaTauri F1 driver, who is known to have a good relationship with the Red Bull star.
De Vries returned to the WEC with Toyota in 2024, claiming an overall victory at Imola and finishing second at Le Mans en route to third in the overall standings.
The Dutchman impressed on his F1 debut for Williams at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, scoring points for ninth place after being called up as a late substitute for an unwell Alex Albon.
That landed De Vries, a title winner in the prestigious F2 feeder series and the all-electric Formula E category, a full-time seat with Red Bull’s junior team, now called VCARB, at the start of the 2023 season.
However, he was replaced by Daniel Ricciardo after just 10 races having struggled to match team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, finishing no higher than 12th.
Last month, Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko admitted that the signing of De Vries was the “biggest mistake” of his career, having ignored Red Bull team principal Christian Horner’s concerns about the driver.
He told Italian publication Autosprint:?“My biggest mistake? That was undoubtedly Nyck de Vries.
“He did very well on his debut for Williams in Monza. He also had an incredible CV. He was Formula 2 champion and Formula E champion.
“But for us the stopwatch said that Nyck de Vries was the wrong choice.”
De Vries made a shock return to an F1 cockpit last November when he was spotted testing for Red Bull rivals McLaren in a Pirelli tyre test at Paul Ricard.
With Verstappen locked in battle with McLaren driver Lando Norris at the time, the Red Bull driver joked that he would ask De Vries about the secrets of his rivals’ success.
He said:?“He will send me a full report of what is going on!
“No, of course not. We always keep it very professional. That’s his job.
“I’m not there to try and steal information. I don’t want to put him in that position anyway.”
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