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Jules Gounon praised Max Verstappen as an 'amazing team-mate' ahead of the Nurburgring 24 Hours. Verstappen, making his debut at the event, will drive a Mercedes-AMG GT3 alongside Gounon and others.
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Jules Gounon was full of praise for his āamazing team-mateā Max Verstappen, claiming heās the perfect co-driver for endurance racing ahead of contesting the Nurburgring 24 Hours.
The four-time Formula 1 world champion is making his debut at the historic event this weekend, driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Gounon, Lucas Auer and Daniel Juncadella.
Verstappenās entry has brought additional fan fare to the 2026 race, which has fully sold out amid the Dutchmanās ongoing endurance racing commitments that keep increasing.
But alongside that, he is also the founder of theĀ Verstappen.com Racing team which Gounon competes for in GT World Challenge and that led to him being picked for the Nordschleife.
Gounon told Motorsport.com: āMax is an amazing team-mate to have. Since the first test we did in Estoril, I immediately understood that this person is coming from another planet, in a good way, because the guy is just amazing.
āOn top of that, he's a very nice team-mate, so if I had amnesia and I would not know the person, I would be like, āwow, this is a very good move that AMG brought this driver with us because he's fast, he's nice, he's funā.
Jules Gounon
āAt the end, it's what you need in endurance. In endurance, you need to share a lot of stuff, so if you don't get along with your team-mate, it's very difficult to have a nice atmosphere.
Jules Gounon described Max Verstappen as an 'amazing team-mate' and the perfect co-driver for endurance racing.
Max Verstappen is making his debut at the Nurburgring 24 Hours this weekend.
Max Verstappen's co-drivers are Jules Gounon, Lucas Auer, and Daniel Juncadella.
The race is sold out due to the increased fanfare surrounding Max Verstappen's participation in the event.

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āAnd Max is very nice: he's very open, very humble. There is no ego. So in this way, he's a very nice team-mate.ā
The #3 Mercedes is therefore the talk of the paddock this weekend and to many is the favourite for victory, but not just because of Verstappen.
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Gounon is an already successful endurance racer with two victories at the Spa 24 Hours, having also taken the 2022 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance title with Juncadella, while Auer took the Sprint version of that championship in 2024.
So Mercedes is in a great position to take its first Nurburgring 24 Hours victory since 2016, when it won with Maro Engel, Bernd Schneider, Manuel Metzger and Adam Christodoulou.
āWe are good on paper, but we didn't win it for 10 years,ā added Gounon. āSo I really hope that we have a good race.
#3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO: Max Verstappen
āOnce again, I don't like to speak before, but we have prepared as much as we could, as best as we could and hopefully it turns out well.ā
Yet Gounon knows looking good on paper matters relatively little at such a manic and unpredictable event, as various factors like mixed weather, strategy and reliability come into play.
āI really believe that all the 24-hour races, it's something that's meant to be - the place needs to choose you,ā said the Frenchman.
āAt the end of the day, you need a bit of luck to win the 24 hours. I lost many 24 hours where I really thought that I was going to have them.
āI'm doing sprint and endurance races, which is something very different, and in endurance, I really feel...at the end, you need to provoke your luck, that's clear.
āBut I feel in those big races where there's a lot of aura from the place, the place needs to choose you.ā
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