There are repeated claims on social media that Max Verstappen was penalised with a 35-kilogram weight penalty at the 2026 Nurburgring 24 Hours. Here’s how that rumour got started.
Remarkably, a rumour persists on social media that the Mercedes-AMG GT3 was 35 kilograms heavier than usual during the 2026 Nurburgring 24 Hours. This is complete nonsense, as the AMG raced, just like the previous year, with a weight of 1,355kg.
The fact that these 35kg keep popping up on social media was reason enough for Motorsport.com Germany to investigate the origin of this figure. Anyone tracing the claim back ultimately ends up at the US website MotorBiscuit, which published the headline “Max Verstappen’s Nurburgring 24H Bid Hit by Brutal BoP Penalty” in mid-May.
From there, this headline quickly made its way to Reddit and other platforms. Other websites also picked up the story without questioning it, so that the 35kg eventually even ended up on MSN. But what is really behind the ominous 35kg?
The figure was taken from the official BoP documents but completely taken out of context.
In the official BoP, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 is listed with a minimum weight of 1,355kg. The McLaren 720S GT3, on the other hand, was allowed on the track with 1,320kg. If you subtract one figure from the other, you get exactly the 35-kilogram difference in question.
Ultimately, this was a case of comparing apples to oranges, because the 35-kilogram difference compared to the McLaren already existed at the 2025 24-hour race.
In fact, nothing had actually gotten worse for the AMG. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 even received a 0.5 millimetre increase of its two air restrictors compared to the previous year to keep the ageing car competitive on the Nordschleife.
#3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO: Max Verstappen, Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
The Balance of Performance serves to bring fundamentally different vehicle concepts to the same performance level. Due to its mighty V8 front engine and overall construction, the Mercedes is by nature one of the heaviest cars in the GT3 class. The McLaren, with its mid-engine layout and carbon-fibre chassis, represents a completely different vehicle concept.
So, by no means were sandbags stuffed into Verstappen’s cockpit just before the race. Every single Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the entire field had to compete with these 1,355 kilograms — it was its standard operating weight for the “Green Hell” ever since its Evo upgrade back in 2020.
In the end, what we see is a classic social media phenomenon: a raw number is copied from an official table, garnished with a dash of drama for easy clicks, and suddenly a concrete conspiracy theory arises that is lacking any foundation.
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