Juncadella rejects theory over Verstappen Racing’s Nurburgring 24H heartbreak

After spending almost the entire race at the front, the team led by the four-time world champion in the #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 was forced to give up its dreams of glory after a technical issue ended its hopes of victory. During the night, the Dutchman had a hard wheel-to-wheel clash with Engel, who would later go on to drive his Mercedes to victory just a few hours later, leading some to speculate that the problem may have originated from that very contact.

That theory, however, was quickly dismissed by Juncadella, who made it clear he did not believe the earlier contact had anything to do with the retirement, stressing that incidents like this are simply part of motorsport and that there was nobody to blame for what happened: “No, I don't think so. I mean, in the end, that was many, many hours ago and I think it would be too tricky to really say that it's due to... It's just motorsport. It happens, unfortunately it happened to us today, but I don't think there's anybody to blame.”

The Spaniard explained that the first signs of trouble appeared shortly after leaving the pits, when an ABS warning message started appearing on the dashboard before he realized the system was no longer working. Despite being able to manage the situation initially by adjusting the brake balance, he later began hearing unusual noises before the car eventually became undriveable. After returning slowly to the pits, the team discovered a driveshaft issue which also caused further collateral damage to the car and likely triggered the electronic problems linked to the ABS failure.

“I went out of the pits, everything felt normal and then after like half or one third of the lap I saw an EBS failure message popping on and off. I reseted the message and it was okay, but then I realized the ABS was not working, so I was driving without ABS, but actually it was not that bad, I could somehow manage, I adjusted the brake balance a little bit to try to avoid locking the front tires, and it was drivable. I felt like they wanted me to box to find the issue but I figured it's better if I continue and maybe we figure out what we can do.”

Asked about Verstappen’s reaction after the technical issue that ended the team’s race, Auer admitted there was a strong sense of frustration inside the garage, although he underlined that situations like this are simply part of endurance racing and motorsport in general. The Austrian also highlighted the challenge of managing traffic between the different classes around the Nordschleife, but despite that still felt the race had remained relatively clean overall.

Despite the heartbreaking retirement, Auer looked back positively on the weekend, praising the atmosphere within Verstappen Racing and describing it as a pleasure to share the car with both his teammates and the entire crew. He also commended the way the team handled the huge media attention surrounding the project, stressing how well organized the operation had been throughout the event while also calling the level on display in the GT3 category “amazing.”