IMOLA -- Max Verstappen has provided some background information on his record-breaking GT3 Nurburgring test, including his reasons for choosing the alias Franz Hermann on the official entry list.
Formula 1's reigning champion spent his weekend off between the Miami Grand Prix and Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix taking part in a sports car test at the famous 14-mile Nordschleife circuit.
Driving a Ferrari 296 GT3, Verstappen is said to have beaten the track record for a GT3 car -- which previously stood at 7:49.5 -- although official timing from the day was not made public.
"It was [faster than the previous record], yeah," Verstappen said. "For me, I'm not there to show that I can break a lap record or whatever record, I was just having fun and learning the track together with the team.
"We just had a good time, getting up to speed, we were lucky with the conditions as well. It was really nice and sunny, so that's great if you can have that."
Organisers of the event asked Verstappen to take part under a pseudonym in order to keep crowd sizes at a manageable size.
"You're not on the entry list [if you use a fake name], otherwise people rock up at 8 a.m. knowing that my name is on the entry list," he explained. "I knew that once I was there that people would realise -- but that's normal.
"But at least I wasn't on the entry list, so at least at 8 a.m., 9 a.m. it was pretty calm."
As for the reason for choosing the name Franz Hermann, Verstappen added: "They asked me for a fake name, so I said let's make it as German as we can."
Verstappen hopes to race at the Nurburgring 24-Hours in the future, but said he is still in the process of working the necessary testing into his F1 schedule.
"I would like to do that in the future," he said. "That's why I'm doing all these things, to prepare a bit, get a bit of experience. So you don't need to do that in the future."
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Verstappen had Red Bull's blessing to take part in the test despite being prevented from driving an F1 car in a demonstration run at the same circuit in 2023 due to concerns about his safety.
F1 stopped racing at the Nordschleife in 1976 following Niki Lauda's fiery crash at the circuit.
Verstappen said the current specification of F1 cars would run too low to the ground and be too stiff to make the most of their performance potential around the lap, and admitted anything faster than a GT3 car would come with increased risk.
"I would not want to drive there with these [current F1] cars," he said. "It's too bumpy and too many compressions.
"Honestly, for me when I drove there I think the GT3 speed is perfectly fine. Anything above that becomes already a little bit more risky."