Mercedes ‘very disappointed’ after blunder overturns Verstappen Nordschleife win

Celebrations at Winward Racing for the victory of the Verstappen, Juncadella and Gounon crew lasted only a few hours, with the crushing blow arriving later in the evening as the team was disqualified for exceeding the permitted number of tyre sets during the race.

Wendl acknowledged Winward Racing’s rookie error in what was their first race at the Nurburgring with the Mercedes AMG GT3, admitting his disappointment over the final outcome while stressing that a thorough review will be needed to understand how the mistake occurred.

“The disappointment was all the greater when we realised that we had made a mistake behind the scenes that morning and the race organisers were forced to disqualify the winning car. That hurts, and naturally everyone involved is very disappointed. It shows once again that you can only win on the Nordschleife if everything comes together.

“Winward Racing, who managed the deployment of the two Performance cars, were competing in this line-up for the first time in the NLS. Now we need to analyse the mistakes, whilst also taking the positive lessons from the weekend on board and focusing on the remaining preparatory races as well as the 24-hour race.”

Winward Racing team principal Christian Hohenadel also addressed the team’s costly blunder that led to Verstappen’s disqualification, ultimately stripping him of victory.

The German admitted the setback was a painful one, explaining that an internal error forced race control to retrospectively exclude the winning car. He also pointed out that it marked the team’s first outing as a Mercedes-AMG Performance outfit on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Hohenadel went on to apologise to everyone who had supported the team, confirming that a full analysis will now be carried out. The focus, he added, will shift to careful preparation for the remaining races, with full attention already turning to the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring.