Following last weekend’s shambolic display from three-time Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen, the team have stated that they don’t believe his childish shouting over the radio, or erratic driving, stem from late-night sim racing-related fatigue. Reports from the 24 Hours of Spa virtual indicate that Verstappen was called in as a last-minute replacement for a teammate who didn’t show up, starting a stint around 1 a.m. and finally relinquishing control of the in-game car at around 3:3o the morning before the Hungarian Grand Prix. When asked about his aggressive calls to the team, Max said of his critics: “They can all fuck off.”
On Monday Red Bull released a statement insisting that Verstappen knows what he needs to do to be at his best, and that the team doesn’t think his sim racing contributed to Sunday’s poor form. At the time the team agreed that a meeting would be needed “later in the week” to discuss Max calling up race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase to shout about the team’s poor form.
Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko said: “He was up even longer in Imola… and won the race.
“Max has a different rhythm to me or other people and the time he went to bed is nothing out of the ordinary for him.”
That postponed meeting between Red Bull and Max has happened, and the team have decided to hand down a mandate that the young F1 champ get some fucking sleep.
“Max Verstappen was rather thin-skinned this weekend, and of course it didn’t take long for criticism to arise – no wonder, given that he spends half the night playing sim racing,” Marko wrote in his column for Speedweek.
I have to say this: In Imola, he didn’t go to bed until three o’clock in the morning after a sim racing session – and then won the Grand Prix.
“Max has a different sleep rhythm and he had his seven hours of sleep. His late-night sim race on the Hungarian weekend only came about because a driver in his team cancelled.
“Nevertheless, we have agreed that he will no longer run sim races this late in future.”
If I were Red Bull and my star driver was staying up until half past fuck in the morning to play video games, I’d probably have put a stop to that a long time ago. There’s no reason he can’t enjoy himself and play games when he likes, but it’s clearly impacting the team’s performance as much as if he were out bar hopping and carousing would. One would hope that a thrice world champ would be mature enough to make this decision on his own, but alas.