Juan Pablo Montoya is not finished with Max Verstappen. The 2003 Monaco Grand Prix winner has aimed a fresh public salvo at the four-time F1 champion, this time taking issue with Verstappen's choice of weapon for his Nurburgring 24 Hours debut on May 17.
Verstappen will share a Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Emil Frey Racing in this year's Eifel classic, having spent the early part of 2026 quietly stacking up the licence points required to race the full Nordschleife. Montoya, speaking in an interview circulated this week, argued the German manufacturer is the wrong badge on the door given Verstappen's commercial relationship with Ford.
The Colombian's logic ties to a broader 2026 storyline. Red Bull's new in-house power-unit programme, Red Bull Powertrains, is partnered with Ford for hybrid expertise on the engine project that debuted this season. Montoya argued that a driver in Verstappen's position should be promoting Ford's own GT machinery if he is going to race outside Formula 1, and that the manufacturer ought to be making that point privately to its star asset.
The remarks land awkwardly for Verstappen, who has spent recent weeks denying that his Le Mans flirtations with Ford are pulling him away from F1 commitments. Ford Performance's global director Mark Rushbrook went on the record this week to confirm there have been talks with Verstappen about an eventual LMP2 hypercar entry at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a discussion stalled only by F1's clashing June calendar slot.
The Mercedes link in the meantime is not casual. Verstappen has been spotted testing the AMG GT3 at Spa and at Nurburg's NLS endurance rounds, and Emil Frey Racing has built one of the strongest GT3 line-ups in the Pro class around him. Mercedes-AMG Motorsport is treating the deal as a marquee win, an F1 champion racing under their three-pointed star at the most-watched endurance round on the European calendar.
Montoya has form for needling Verstappen. He recently waded into the McLaren-Verstappen swap rumour by claiming that Mark Webber 'is not happy' about the speculation around his client Oscar Piastri's seat, and earlier this season described Verstappen as the man with the 'most attitude' on the grid. The fact that Verstappen has not publicly bitten back suggests he sees little upside in feuding with a former Williams and McLaren driver who is happy to talk about him week-to-week.
For Ford, Montoya has handed Rushbrook an awkward question for the next round of media availability. The American giant has just confirmed it wants Verstappen for Le Mans. Whether it would be willing to stretch that ambition into a parallel Ford GT3 deal for the Nurburgring or whether Verstappen, as a racer first and a brand ambassador second, simply gets to keep choosing his own machinery, will likely become the next front in the latest Verstappen-Montoya skirmish.
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*Originally published on [Formula 1 News](https://newsformula.one/article/juan-pablo-montoya-verstappen-mercedes-amg-gt3-nurburgring-ford-pressure-2026). Visit for full coverage.*