'Megastar' Max Verstappen thanked for unexpected motorsport boost

Max Verstappen has been lauded for a "giant step forward" in re-energising motorsport crowds in Germany, thanks to his GT3 racing exploits.

Since Michael Schumacher retired for the first time in 2006, audiences in Germany steadily fell, with the race falling off the F1 calendar after 2019, although a one-off race was held in 2020 at the Nurburgring owing to the original calendar being decimated due to COVID-19.

With motorsport also being increasingly expensive at grassroots level, it is not attracting children, but DTM Series boss Thomas Voss has explained how "megastar" Verstappen has begun to draw crowds back to GT3 and DTM races as fans realise there are other alternatives to F1 grands prix - which can be considerably more expensive. 

"Motorsport is not quite cheap, unlike swimming trunks or a pair of football boots," DTM boss Thomas Voss told F1 Insider.

"In the time of a Michael Schumacher, motorsport could hardly save itself from young people and beginners,

"Overall, Verstappen has opened many people's eyes to the whole GT sport and thus also to the DTM, that there is something else besides Formula 1, with which you can drive interesting races - great cars that also look similar to the road car.

"That's why it was extremely important that such a driver took such a step, also for the DTM. For the whole GT sport, it's good that people woke up and realised: There is also something else outside of Formula 1.

“This is a giant step for all motorsport. Such public attention, which you then get through such a megastar, is good for the whole sport."