Red Bull Halts Max Verstappen’s Late Night Simracing Right Before F1 Races

Max Verstappen and Red Bull have agreed that the three-time world champion will not participate in late-night sim races right before his F1 races. Helmut Marko reveals this comes after the recent episode in Hungary.

Before the Hungarian Grand Prix race, Verstappen was awake till 3 am to participate in racing Spa 24hrs. But the following day, Verstappen didn’t have a smooth ride at the Hungaroring as he was ill-tempered and even swore at his team on the radio.

“Verstappen was rather thin-skinned this weekend, and of course, it didn’t take long for criticism to arise – no wonder, since he spends half the night playing sim racing,” Marko told Speed Week.

However, this was not the first time when Verstappen had taken part in sim racing late at night before a race. In Imola also he did the same, and on the contrary, he went on to win the race in Italy.

Marko reveals that this time Verstappen didn’t plan to race virtually till late at night. He had to fill in for someone else, as someone backed out at the last minute. However, Marko added, “Nonetheless, we have agreed that in the future he won’t do simulations so late anymore.”

While Verstappen could be cranky because of the lack of sleep, his team was at the receiving end of his anger. And Gianpiero Lambiase was the one who had to deal with him throughout.

Marko claims Verstappen’s comments were “inappropriate“

Verstappen and Lambiase are no strangers to having tough conversations during a race. But this time, it seemed that Verstappen wasn’t ready to hold a ceasefire after the action stopped on the track.

Marko concedes that the reigning world champion’s choice of words with Lambiase were “inappropriate“. However, at the same time, he did defend Verstappen over his collision with Lewis Hamilton, where he accused the Mercedes star of the contact,

“I discussed this with Verstappen. Certainly, his car’s wheels locked when braking, but he would have made the corner, so there was no question of him losing control of his car. Max was ahead, but Hamilton turned in, and everyone saw what happened then.”

Even Max Verstappen’s race engineer is fed up with his team radio nonsense.

Big applause to GP for these respones. Shut up and drive Max. #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/PFSb3DdbrZ

— Maxx | F1newsletter.com (@F1_Newsletter) July 21, 2024

Meanwhile, Hamilton called it a racing incident and prophesized during the post-race press conference that Red Bull could make a big deal out of it. Seeing Marko’s comments, Hamilton wasn’t exactly wrong.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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