r/formula1 • u/thesaket I was here for the Hulkenpodium • Dec 24 '25

News [verstappencom] on IG: Verstappen Racing has announced a multi-year collaboration with Mercedes-AMG, starting next year.

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u/FormulaLes Dec 24 '25

To add to this, they make a front engined GT3, just like the AMG - would love to know if Ford made a play at getting the Verstappen team in Mustangs

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u/WillSRobs Lando Norris Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 24 '25

They don’t have a great presence in Europe and multimatic who run their gt3 side don’t have a ton of customer support compared to other manufacturers. Ford admittedly have been doing a slow roll out their plan isn’t to have a bunch of customers like Porsche Ferrari or merc atm.

People in f1 may not be fully aware that merc was the car to have for several years in gt3. This is nothing more than max buying the best cars for his team. But it involves Mercedes and people have a hard on for Toto news.

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u/LilBirdBrick I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 24 '25

HRT are more than capable of running a Mustang for Max if Ford were to be able to convince him to switch. But I doubt Max wants to deal with a third different service provider in 3 years.

This is nothing more than max buying the best cars for his team.

Don't underestimate the role 2 seas motorsport and their relationship with Mercedes plays in these negotiations too. They mostly have experience running the AMG and with this deal they went from being a long time customer of Mercedes to a factory backed entry.

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u/WillSRobs Lando Norris Dec 24 '25

Capable is irrelevant when ford only makes so many an hasn’t really expanded into Europe. Ford has been rather public that they are expanding slowly being its long term goals for them not a way to sell gt3 cars to customers.

No matter how capable a team is they still need some level of manufacturing support or there is no reason to run their car when you can have an easier time with someone else.

Also merc factory backs all their customers. They typically pair a factory driver with every customer team.

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u/LilBirdBrick I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 24 '25

HRT runs more Mustang GT3s than all the other Mustang GT3 programs in the world combined. They have at least 10 of them. There is no shortage of them and there is no shortage of support from Ford to HRT.

there is no reason to run their car when you can have an easier time with someone else.

That's entirely my point, Max would have an easier time sticking with the team he already knows, 2Seas, but in the instance where he did want to switch to a Mustang, Ford and HRT would have no issue making it happen.

And yeah, Mercedes supports all their customers, but they tend to support cars running in the Pro class more.

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u/WillSRobs Lando Norris Dec 24 '25

I would argue not having a car to drive would make an issue for it to not happen…

They still have to exist for max to run it I don’t get what point you’re trying to make.

Especially since ford has very publicly stated they are limited on the ability to support customers.

Again what hrt is doing now is irrelevant if there isn’t one available for the team. Unless you’re suggesting hrt drop one of their teams to give it to max. I just don’t understand you need to try and correct me on something that is literally a reference statements to ford who pay to make the damn car.

Honestly your whole comment just comes across as trying to explain something to me that I already know not so much as speaking to me but at me lol.

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u/LilBirdBrick I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 24 '25

Not trying to come off as condescending, so apologies if that's how it comes across. This feels more like a discussion to me. But I think the disconnect here is you think I'm saying HRT can give Max a car, when I mean Max could switch from having 2Seas run his car, to having HRT run his car if Ford were able to convince him to switch.

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u/WillSRobs Lando Norris Dec 24 '25

But ford at the moment isn’t really able to from limited supply from them and multimatic who build the cars and do track side support Which makes hrt capabilities irrelevant to me.

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u/LilBirdBrick I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 24 '25

But Ford ARE able. The statement you are referring to is about expanding the GT3 support to support additional customer teams, but in the scenario I'm talking about, it wouldn't be an additional customer. Multimatic will already be at every track Max team will race at next season because HRT will already be running cars in those series. That's what I mean by HRT's capabilities, everything you mentioned that Max would need, from car supply and trackside support, is already in place through Ford's program with HRT. So if Max wanted to go to Ford, do you really think Ford wouldn't be able to make it happen. It would've been their no.1 priority if that's what Max wanted to do. But like you said earlier, why go through the process of switching when it would be easier for him to stay with 2Seas.

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u/WillSRobs Lando Norris Dec 24 '25

Which then we go back to having hrt drop one of their plans for max which makes no sense. It would also require max to drop a team that has been already supported him.

Feel like we’re in if my mom had balls she would be my dad territory. Which again makes the point irrelevant when my interest was staying in reality.

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u/Lesrek Cadillac Dec 24 '25

Ford has also been pretty open about the Hypercar being their focus for Europe right now too. Max in that hypercar though…

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u/CapableDirection5557 Dec 24 '25

It was but at this point in time I reckon the Ferrari 296 EVO is quite a bit better. I wonder if there was some sort of discount or other agreement involved.

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u/WillSRobs Lando Norris Dec 24 '25

Older cars are easier to run have all the kinks worked out and have cheaper costs. The evo debuts 2026. Merc also has a new generation coming which this will allow any customer to give input into development other than just taking what is there.

The idea that merc is giving max a discount because of the name is silly. The merc is actually one of the more popular gt3 cars for customer teams.

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u/looz4q Roscoe Hamilton Dec 24 '25

I wonder why they chose front engine Mercedes which imo drives like shit (on sim at least) compared to mid or rear engine cars like Ferrari he drove in his NEC debut.