WEC drivers praise Verstappen and Stroll for sparking GT racing's growth spurt

Verstappen is back in action this weekend on the Nurburgring Nordschleife. Last week, his Formula 1 colleague Lance Stroll contested a race at Paul Ricard in the GT World Challenge Europe, where a raft of penalties dropped him to the back of the field.

His teammate, Mattia Drudi, won that same race a week ago driving an Aston Martin. The Italian, who lives close to Imola, thinks it’s fantastic how Stroll and Verstappen are currently showing their love for GT racing.

“I feel like it's really important actually, because now every GT race, even when they are not really involved, the sport is becoming bigger and bigger,” the Italian said during the opening weekend of the WEC season, while answering a question from GPblog.

Stroll may not have won, but his participation ensured there was plenty of attention on the race. Drudi saw that too. “There were more people at the track, more followers on social media or even the media attention.”

Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll are bringing a new audience to GT racing, Drudi believes. “People are discovering endurance racing more. They understand that it's really cool. I mean, it's not only F1, so I think it's important for all of us that these guys are getting into it more, and people are going to enjoy GT and endurance racing more in general."

Ford colleague Giammarco Levorato, who's racing a Mustang in Imola, agrees: “Yeah, I fully agree with Mattia. It's good to have those drivers joining us on track. For sure it's good for a lot of stuff, and also for the spectators and motorsport in general. Especially GT3 is getting more important every year. So I'm proud to be here at this moment,” says the Italian.