"Very inconsiderate of you": Verstappen's teammate jokes about 24h of Spa absence

Another major 24-hour race is set to take place next week. At the iconic Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, the world's leading GT3 teams and drivers will go head-to-head. Verstappen Racing, Max Verstappen’s GT3 team, will also be in action at the event. The No. 3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo will be driven by Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Chris Lulham.

Meanwhile, Verstappen will be focused on Formula 1 duties. The Dutchman is set to contest the Austrian Grand Prix with Red Bull Racing, where he will once again wear his special orange helmet for the team's home race. Red Bull will also bring updates for the four-time world champion, as team principal Laurent Mekies confirmed during the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

Replying to the post of Verstappen sharing his orange helmet for Austria, his Spanish teammate wrote: "Nice helmet yes, but very inconsiderate of you to skip the 24h of Spa to go racing in an F1 in circles somewhere around Zeltweg."

In Miami, Verstappen was asked about competing at the famous 24-hour event in Belgium as well. Speaking to GPblog, among others, there, he explained: "I want to do more of course, but it also depends a bit on the calendar. For example, if there was a free weekend for the 24 Hours of Spa, I would have done that already this year as well. So it's just whatever allows me to race, I would love to do so."

Speaking after the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, where he was unable to challenge for the podium, Verstappen commented: "Well, it's clear that I think we're still behind Ferrari, Mercedes, and McLaren because they basically finished ahead of each of them. So we're still, I think, P4 as a team. Maybe a little bit better, but it's still not where, of course, we want to be. It's a work in progress. I hope very soon that we can pick up a little bit more performance."

For Austria, Mekies said that they plan the RB22 to be lighter. "In Austria, hopefully we'll get lighter there. The plan is to get the car to eat a little bit less there, and to get on a bit of a diet," the Frenchman said with a smile.