Daniel Juncadella dismissed any connection between Max Verstappen’s contact with Maro Engel and Verstappen Racing’s retirement from the 24 Hours of Nurburgring this weekend. The teammate of the four-time Formula 1 world champion in the endurance race stated that the technical problem suffered by the team’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 was just a common episode in motorsport.
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The #3 car, driven by Verstappen, Juncadella, Jules Gounon, and Lucas Auer, spent much of the race among the leaders. However, a mechanical failure ended the team’s chances of victory in the final hours of the traditional German race.
During the early morning, Verstappen was involved in a wheel-to-wheel battle with Engel, who later won the race with another Mercedes. After Verstappen Racing’s retirement, speculation arose that that contact could have caused the damage leading to the technical problem.
Juncadella, however, directly rejected this theory. According to the Spaniard, the incident happened many hours before the failure and there is no reason to blame anyone for the car’s retirement: “No, I don’t think so. In the end, that happened many hours before and it would be very complicated to say it was because of that. This is motorsport. It happens. Unfortunately, it happened to us today, but I don’t think there is anyone to blame,” he said.
The driver also revealed details about the problem that took the team out of the fight for victory. According to Juncadella, the first signs appeared shortly after leaving the pits, when ABS system failure messages began to appear on the car’s dashboard.
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Even without the ABS working properly, he managed to stay on track by adjusting the brake balance to avoid locking the front wheels: “The car was still drivable,” explained the Spaniard, adding that he decided to continue on track while the team tried to understand the situation.
Soon after, however, the situation worsened quickly. Juncadella began to hear unusual noises and realized something more serious was about to happen, forcing him to reduce pace and slowly return to the pits.
After inspection, the team identified a problem with the driveshaft, which also caused additional damage in other areas of the Mercedes-AMG GT3. According to the Spaniard, this failure likely triggered the electronic problems that affected the ABS operation and led to Verstappen Racing’s definitive retirement.
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