These drivers will team up with Verstappen at the 24h Nurburgring

The #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Verstappen Racing will be driven by four drivers this weekend at the Nordschleife. Verstappen will be joined by Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon, and Lucas Auer. Find out more about Verstappen's teammates below!

The 35-year-old Spanish driver won the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2012. A year later, he became a Formula 1 test driver for Williams while beginning his DTM career, before taking on the same role at Force India in 2014. That season, he participated in three free practice sessions for the team at Silverstone, Monza and Interlagos. He currently remains a simulator driver for Aston Martin, although he explained to GPblog in an exclusive interview that his busy schedule has limited his simulator work since last December.

After competing in DTM for seven seasons, where he claimed a single victory in 2018, Juncadella also continued to race in various IMSA events. He then completed two full seasons with TF Sport in the LMGT3 category of the World Endurance Championship, with victory in Qatar in 2025 marking the team’s best result. At Le Mans, his best finish came last year, when he placed seventh alongside Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating.

Juncadella has considerable experience at the Nurburgring as well. He competed at the 24-hour race on eight times, all but one year since 2018. He could step on the podium on two occasions driving a Mercedes GT3 car, in 2021 and in 2022. In 2026, alongside racing for Verstappen Racing in the GT World Challenge Europe series, he also drives the Genesis hypercar in the WEC.

Gounon is a 31-year-old French endurance driver who has also competed under the Andorran flag. He claimed his first GT title in 2017 in the ADAC GT Masters series while driving a Corvette. After serving as an official Bentley factory driver from 2018 to 2020, Gounon switched to Mercedes in 2021. Behind the wheel of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, he enjoyed major success in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, winning two Pro titles in 2022 and 2023.

While his best result at the 24h Nurburgring is a third-place finish from 2022, achieved alongside Juncadella, he has enjoyed greater success at other major endurance events. He won the Bathurst 12 Hour three times with Mercedes and also claimed victory in the GTD Pro category at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2023. However, his last two appearances at the 24h Nurburgring were less successful, with his team failing to finish the race in both 2023 and 2024.

Since the final rounds of the 2024 DTM season, Gounon has also raced a Mercedes GT3 in the German series. In 2025, he secured three podium finishes in his first full season in the competition. Since 2024, he has also competed for Alpine in the Hypercar class of the World Endurance Championship, finishing on the podium twice in 2025 at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps. At last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, he finished ninth.

The 31-year-old Austrian driver began his European single-seater career with Van Amersfoort Racing, the same team Max Verstappen also raced for. In 2012, he finished second in the German Formula 3 Championship. He then joined the FIA Formula 3 European Championship, where he first battled a young Verstappen. In 2013 and 2014, he finished fourth in the championship.

Auer began racing Mercedes cars in DTM in 2015. Aside from skipping the 2019 season and spending one year with BMW in 2020, he has driven a Mercedes car in every campaign. He has 11 victories in the series and finished runner-up twice, in 2022 and 2025. He also started the 2026 campaign strongly, scoring two podiums at the Red Bull Ring.

He has driven for Mercedes in the GT World Challenge Europe series since 2018. He won the Sprint Cup title in 2024 and finished second in the Endurance Cup in 2025. Unlike Juncadella and Gounon, he does not compete for Verstappen Racing in the series in 2026.

In 2026, he achieved one of his biggest victories by winning the GTD class at the 24 Hours of Daytona. He previously competed at the 24h Nurburgring in 2024, but his team did not finish the race.

Many fans can remember that Verstappen achieved his first victory at the Nordschleife alongside Lulham back in 2025. The Briton will compete at the 24h Nurburgring, but not for the Dutchman's team. He will drive the #22 PROsport racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 car together with Adam Christodoulou, Mikael Grenier and Marek Böckmann.