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SPA, Belgium—Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen says Red Bull has not banned him from sim racing during grand prix weekends because he “knows pretty well what I can and what I can’t do.”
Verstappen stayed up until 3 a.m. on Sunday ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix to compete in an online race with his sim racing team, Team Redline. (The Grand Prix started at 3 p.m. local time.) He is an avid sim racer, regularly competes in major events and has installed a rig in the camper van he drives to Formula One races across Europe.
The decision to stay up so late was viewed critically by some pundits (particularly on Sky Sports’ coverage) during a difficult Hungarian Grand Prix. During the race, Verstappen expressed frustration with Red Bull’s strategy decisions and subsequently clashed with Lewis Hamilton, leaving him fifth.
In a column for the Red Bull website Speed Week after the race in Hungary, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko said it was “no wonder” that there had been criticism given the outcome and that the team had agreed with Verstappen that he “would not run any more simulations at such a late stage in the future.”
On Thursday at Spa, Verstappen said that sim racing so late in his career was “nothing new” to him and that sim racing was “something very important in my life”.
He denied that Red Bull had imposed a ban or curfew, but said there were no other races scheduled so they “didn’t have to worry.”
“It’s not like I have a ban or anything,” Verstappen said. “I don’t have to tell them what they do in their private time and on the weekends. That goes for me too.”
Verstappen pointed out that he had stayed up late during the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend in Imola in May to compete in the virtual 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, one of the biggest events on the sim racing calendar. He still took pole and won the race in Imola, and was part of the winning four-man crew in the virtual event.
“When you don’t win the race, you always blame it on ‘Oh, you stayed up until 3 in the morning, oh he’s a kilo overweight’,” Verstappen said. “There are always things you can argue about when you don’t win a race. But for example in Imola I win the race, both of them. So for me this is not something new. I’ve been doing this since 2015.
“That’s not something that’s different in my preparation. I’ve won three world championships. I think I know pretty well what I can do and what I can’t do, and I’m always very strict with myself about what I can and can’t do.
“I think with all the experience I have in Formula 1, I know very well what is possible.”
No change in Verstappen’s radio approach
Verstappen was also asked about his radio messages to his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, during the Hungarian Grand Prix. The driver regularly questioned the team’s strategy decisions after being undermined twice in the pits.
Verstappen said after the Grand Prix that he felt irritated by the strategy during the race and that critics who suggested he was disrespectful to the team could go to hell.
Looking back on Hungary on Thursday, Verstappen felt it was “very clear that the team’s strategy was wrong” and that he was “very driven” to succeed.
He said that if people don’t like his language, they should “not listen and turn the volume down.” He also didn’t expect his approach to change in the future.
“We are very open-minded, very critical of each other, and that works very well for us,” Verstappen said. “So I don’t expect that to change. That’s our approach.
“I think it’s important to be able to be critical, because in the world we live in now, I think a lot of people can’t handle criticism as well as they used to. And I don’t want to end up in that situation.”
Verstappen said he and Lambiase would discuss the events in Hungary “as we always do” once his engineer arrives at the circuit on Thursday, but that it was “very normal” to reflect on the events.
Lewis Hamilton gave his views on Red Bull’s challenges this season. (SIPA USA)
‘You have to behave like a world champion’
Verstappen’s frustration in Hungary reflected the growing pressure on him and Red Bull at the top of the Formula 1 field, given the recent rise of Norris and McLaren, who now appear to have the fastest car despite being behind at the start of the season.
Verstappen’s former title rival Hamilton shared his thoughts on how to deal with a mid-season drop in car performance: “You have to be a team leader, a team member.
“Maybe not so much a team leader, but more so: always remember that you are a teammate with many people, and you have to behave like a world champion.”
When asked what that is, Hamilton laughed and replied: “That’s a good question. Not like it was last week.”
Verstappen knows his championship lead over Lando Norris will shrink further at Spa as he faces a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding this season’s maximum capacity.
The Dutchman said it was “likely” he would take the penalty here given the ease of overtaking, but he doubted a win was possible – unlike the last two years, when he won despite a grid drop.
“If you look at our last few races, where we weren’t exactly the fastest, I wouldn’t say that with 10 extra places we have a chance of winning,” he said.
Top photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
