Red Bull Could Oppose Max Verstappen’s Sim Racing as Helmut Marko Admits Team’s Fault With Strategy

Max Verstappen’s 2024 Hungarian GP was disastrous, and heated exchanges with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase on the team radio raised many eyebrows. Sky Sports commentator David Croft joked about Verstappen staying up late and sim racing, whereas the Dutchman blamed the team’s strategy for his P5 finish. After the race, Red Bull addressed both issues.

Understeer was a huge problem for Verstappen on Sunday’s race at the Hungaroring. It frustrated him a lot, but getting undercut by Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc twice added to his woes and he was livid.

Helmut Marko was empathetic. He told Telegraaf,

“We completely misjudged it [the strategy]. This was a gross error of judgment by the team.” 

Helmut Marko zegt ’sorry’ tegen Max Verstappen, teambaas Christian Horner wil zaken ’achter gesloten deuren’ bespreken https://t.co/bMPTVEhJ0y via @telegraaf

— Erik van Haren (@ErikvHaren) July 21, 2024

On the other hand, Red Bull also looked into Verstappen’s other off-track activities. His snarky comments to Lambiase on the team radio and irritable mood could have been a result of his participation in the 24 Hours of Spa (Virtual) the night before the Grand Prix. As such, the 26-year-old reportedly got only a few hours of sleep. 

Team Principal Christian Horner hinted at a possible conversation with Verstappen regarding his sim-racing duties on F1 race weekends. He said,

“As a team, we always work together and if there are discussions about anything, we do not do it in the media.”

At the same time, Horner added that he trusted Verstappen knew what he needed to do to become World Champion.

Is Verstappen’s sim racing a problem for Red Bull?

The 2024 Hungarian GP was not Verstappen’s first virtual venture this F1 season. He stayed up late at night, competing in events before both the Saudi Arabian and Emilia Romagna GP weekends earlier this year.

Nico is impressed with Lando Norris’ professionalism ahead of the Hungarian GP

Nico Rosberg: “And at the same time, in contrast, you had Verstappen who until 3 am last night was sim racing. And that’s a bit disappointing. It just shows that he’s too used to his ease of domination.” pic.twitter.com/y2pmssJ7IU

— Devyani (@formula_dev) July 21, 2024

On both those occasions, he won. But it could have been down to the fact that Red Bull still had the fastest car at the time, and no one challenged the Dutchman in particular.

Things, however, have changed, and with rival cars to deal with, Verstappen’s Hungarian GP turned out to be an irritable outing for him.