People are always surprised that my son and I don't watch Formula 1. "But you're all about racing," they say. Yes. Racing.
F1 isn't a motor race so much as rockets on four wheels going very fast on a track and, at knowable moments, passing one another. It is a magnificent show. But in F1, they rarely race.
The biggest story in motorsport this year didn't happen on the high-gloss streets of Miami. It unfolded in the middle of a German forest, where Max Verstappen escaped the Formula 1 bubble to remind the world what raw racing actually looks like — at the Nürburgring 24 Hours.
To my uninitiated readers: Verstappen is the Michael Jordan of racing. A once-in-a-lifetime phenom. Give him any engine, four wheels and a steering wheel and he will fight you for the win. Four-time F1 champion, and — in my opinion — the GOAT, with more still to give. While F1 was busy polishing its corporate image, its own world champion was quietly embarrassing the sport by entering a GT3 endurance race and wiping the floor.
Max didn't use celebrity shortcuts or VIP passes to get there. My son and I tracked his entire journey: he sat the theory exams, raced the qualifying rounds, and earned his Nürburgring permit exactly like every other driver on the entry list.
That stands in stark contrast to the modern F1 driver, who often feels like a media-trained corporate asset rather than a racer. The scary part for F1 is that almost no one else on the grid is even allowed to do this. Red Bull lets "Max be Max." Reports indicate that teams like Mercedes have blocked drivers such as George Russell from even attempting a Nürburgring license — filed under risk management and brand protection.
Critics said Max couldn't simply jump into a GT3 car and beat specialists who had spent years mastering the machinery. They were wrong. When the numbers from the Winward Mercedes-AMG GT3 surfaced, they were uncomfortable reading:
- Pure pace — reportedly over a minute faster than the factory professionals across equivalent stints.
- Dominance — he set the fastest lap of every Winward driver and accounted for nearly half of the car's total fastest laps.
- Raw instinct — overtaking at more than 200 km/h with two wheels on wet grass, then going door-to-door with Maro Engel at 2 a.m. through heavy traffic. We watched it live and shouted at the screen at how dangerous it was.
For the first time in years, you could actually see the hands behind the wheel making the difference — a master at his craft, executing flawlessly. It was pure.
The weekend laid bare a growing rift between F1's business model and its own fan base — a "rights first, fans last" posture, evidenced by the sudden geoblocking of the Nürburgring stream for North American viewers. F1 is a great show: celebrities, music, pomp and circumstance. But you're paying for the show, and the bill is climbing. The reported signals of the drift:
- Global viewership — reportedly down by over 40%.
- Germany — once a heartland of the sport, reportedly down 21%.
- Subscriptions — more than 35,000 fans reportedly cancelled F1 TV in the early months of 2026.
- Sentiment — when fans voiced concerns online, the FIA reportedly censored over 1,000 non-abusive comments.
Formula 1 is standing at a crossroads, and the rest of motorsport has noticed. Other great races are moving in — because Max brings the fans, and he brings real racing:
- Bathurst 12 Hour organizers are reportedly targeting Verstappen for 2027.
- Ford Performance has confirmed conversations about future Le Mans Hypercar opportunities.
- Le Mans, Daytona and Spa are starting to look less like post-career bucket-list stops and more like unfinished chapters.
The Nürburgring 24H proved that Max's popularity no longer depends on Formula 1. If the face of the category is already looking beyond the sport, the fans may follow him there. They've now seen something they can't unsee — and some 30-year loyalists are already calling this era an "obituary." They will keep moving to where the racing is real.
For the opportunist, it sounds like a business idea.
It already has a name. This gap — a world championship for the fastest production-based cars on earth, run where the racing is real — is the entire reason we are building the GT Global Championship: a global season for GT3 and GT4, the cars you actually know, on the greatest circuits in the world, and open to the people who own them. Not only factory drivers and sponsor money. Owner-drivers. Members. People who wear the suit, take the grid, and earn their number.
We won't pretend it all exists yet. Today one thing is confirmed: home — Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Everything else — Spa, Bathurst, the Ring itself — is the ambition we grow toward, one founding member and one bespoke weekend at a time. But the gap Max just exposed in a German forest is the whole reason we started. F1 forgot to put the driver, and the racing, back at the center of the sport. We intend to build the championship that never lost it.
— Peter Saddington, Founder
Where The Racing Is Real.
A world championship for the cars we love — GT3 and GT4, on the greatest circuits on earth, open to the people who own them. Year zero is the only year you can join from the ground floor.