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.”
