Red Bull stop Verstappen’s late-night simracing before F1 races · RaceFans

Max Verstappen has agreed to stop competing in simracing events late at night before grands prix following his performance in the Hungarian Grand Prix, according to Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko.

The world champion stayed up until 3am in the morning before Sunday’s race as he helped Team Redline to victory in the iRacing Spa 24 Hours. However he was ill-tempered throughout the grand prix, repeatedly swore at his race engineer and finished two places lower than he started after colliding with Lewis Hamilton

Verstappen has previously been able to combine his late-night simracing and real-world driving successfully. He won the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix earlier this year after a similar early-hours simracing session.

However Marko confirmed that following his performance last weekend Verstappen has agreed not to combine the two again.

“Max 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 simracing,” Marko told Speed Week.

“I have to point out that at Imola, after a simracing session, he only went to bed at three o’clock in the morning – and then won the grand prix. Max has a different sleep rhythm, and he got his seven hours of sleep.

“His late-night sim session on the Hungary weekend only happened because one of his team’s drivers dropped out. Nonetheless, we have agreed that in future he won’t do simulations so late anymore.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Marko said some of the comments between Verstappen and Lambiase during the race were “inappropriate, to put it politely.” Verstappen tore into Lambiase after his engineer warned him not to over-stress his tyres following his second pit stop. “Don’t give me that bullshit now,” Verstappen raged. “You guys gave me this fucking strategy, okay? I’m trying to rescue what’s left. Fuck’s sake.”

However Marko defended Verstappen over his collision with Hamilton, accusing the Mercedes driver of causing 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.”

2024 Hungarian Grand…