Mysterious Max Verstappen trick has GT world speculating

Max Verstappen had his latest adventure in GT racing last weekend around the Nordschleife as he continues to prepare for the 24 Hours of Nurburgring next month.

The Dutchman was comfortably leading before damage to his car resulted in a lengthy pit stop, dashing any hopes of a victory.

However, it was another impressive outing for the four-time champion, who has proven he is more than able to keep up with the established names from the GT world.

In doing so, he uses a certain trick, as revealed by team-mate Daniel Juncadella a few weeks ago.

Juncadella explained that Verstappen did something that allowed him to stay unusually close to the competition, even in the corners, where you would normally suffer from "dirty air". 

NLS commentator Peter Mackay thinks he saw that Verstappen "found a weak spot in the turbulent slipstream, allowing him to drive closer to someone without destroying the front tyres."

However, that too only says something about the effect of Verstappen's actions and not what exactly he is doing. It has also been suggested that Verstappen 'sets' the car into corners, by purposefully sliding the rear to the outside, so that the front would suffer less from dirty air.

RacingNews365 put that suggestion to former 24 Hours of Nürburgring winner and all-around GT veteran Jeroen Bleekemolen, but he doesn't see anything revolutionary in that explanation. At least, not something that someone of the calibre of Juncadella could not already have thought of on his own.

"Of course you can set the car a bit,” he said. 

“But still difficult to drive behind someone then. He does have an extreme amount of confidence, which does allow him to set it a little bit without going off.

"It could also be that he's braking more with the left foot to keep the nose down. 

“[He could be] operating both pedals at the same time, overlap that is called. But many drivers do that."

Many seem to agree on the effect of what Verstappen is doing, but no one so far has been able to confirm exactly what method he is employing. 

Perhaps the answer will follow in May when Max Verstappen can be observed during the 24-hour race.