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SPA, Belgium—Formula One world champion Max Verstappen says Red Bull has not banned him from sim racing during grand prix weekends as he knows “pretty well what I can and what I cannot do.”
Verstappen stayed up until 3 a.m. on Sunday ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix to participate in an online race with his sim racing team, Team Redline. (The grand prix began at 3 p.m. local time.) He is an avid sim racer, regularly enters major events and has a rig installed in the motorhome he uses to travel to F1 races across Europe.
The decision to stay up so late drew scrutiny from some pundits (most notably, on Sky Sports’ broadcast) during a difficult Hungarian Grand Prix. During the race, Verstappen expressed frustration over Red Bull’s strategy calls and then clashed with Lewis Hamilton, leaving him to finish fifth place.
In a post-Hungary column for the Red Bull-owned website Speed Week, Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko said it was “no wonder” criticism had arisen given the result and that the team had agreed with Verstappen that he would “no longer run simulations so late in the future.”
On Thursday at Spa, Verstappen said sim racing so late was “not something new” for him and that sim racing was “something very important in my life.”
He denied that Red Bull had imposed any ban or curfew but said there were no other races coming up, so they “don’t need to worry.”
“It’s not like I have a ban or whatever,” Verstappen said. “I also don’t need to tell them what they do in their private time and during the weekends. That’s the same for me.”
Verstappen pointed out that he had stayed up late during the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend at Imola in May to take part in the virtual Nürburgring 24-hour race, one of the biggest events on the sim racing calendar. He still took pole and won the race at Imola, and was part of the victorious four-person crew in the virtual event.
“It’s always when you don’t win the race, you will blame it on, ‘Ah, you were staying up until 3 a.m., oh he’s one kilo overweight,’” Verstappen said. “There is always things to make up that you know you can argue about when you don’t win a race. But for example, at Imola, I do win the race, both of them. So, for me, this is not something new. I’ve been doing this since 2015.
“This is not something that is any different in my preparation. I’ve won three world championships. I think I know pretty well what I can and what I cannot do, and I’m always very hard on myself what is allowed and isn’t allowed.
“I think with all the experience that I have in Formula One, I think I know quite well what is possible.”
No change in Verstappen’s radio approach
Verstappen also faced questions about his radio messages to his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, during the Hungarian Grand Prix. The driver regularly questioned the team’s strategy calls after being undercut twice in the pits.
Verstappen said after the grand prix that he felt annoyed with the strategy during the race and that critics who suggested he was disrespectful toward the team could “f— off.”
Looking back on Hungary on Thursday, Verstappen felt it was “quite clear the strategy was wrong” from the team and that he was “very driven” to succeed.
He said if people did not like his language, then “don’t listen in, turn the volume down,” and he did not anticipate any changes in his approach going forward.
“We are very open-minded, very critical of each other, and that’s been working for us very well,” Verstappen said. “So I don’t expect that to change. That’s our approach.
“I think it’s important you can be critical because in this world we are living now, I feel anyway a lot of people can’t take criticism anymore like it used to be, and I don’t want to end up like that.”
Verstappen said that he and Lambiase would discuss what happened in Hungary “like we always do” once his engineer arrives at the track on Thursday but that it was “quite normal” to look back on events.
Lewis Hamilton weighed in on Red Bull’s challenges this season. (SIPA USA)
‘You have to act like a world champion’
Verstappen’s frustration in Hungary reflected the growing pressure on him and Red Bull at the front of the F1 pack, given the recent rise of Norris and McLaren, which now appears to have the fastest car despite trailing in the early part of the season.
Verstappen’s former title rival, Hamilton, shared his thoughts on how to deal with experiencing a mid-season drop in car performance, saying: “You have to be a team leader, a team member.
“Maybe not so much a team leader, but more so just always remember you are a teammate with lots of people, and you have to act like a world champion.”
Asked what that is, Hamilton laughed and replied: “That’s a good question. Not like it was last weekend.”
Verstappen knows his championship lead over Lando Norris will drop further at Spa as he is set to serve a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding the season’s allocation of engines.
The Dutchman said it was “likely” he’d take the penalty here, given the ease of overtaking, but he doubted victory was possible – unlike the past two years, where he won despite a grid drop.
“If you look at our last few races where we haven’t particularly been the fastest, I wouldn’t say that with 10 places extra, we have a chance of winning,” he said.
Top photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
