Max Verstappen said regarding his Red Bull colleagues “I don’t need to tell them what they do in their private time, that’s the same for me” after Helmut Marko’s claims he is now no longer able to contest sim-racing events during Grand Prix weekends.
Verstappen’s participation in a sim race until the early hours of Sunday morning ahead of last Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix led some to question whether it impacted his performance during the race, where the Dutchman engaged in heated exchanges over team radio and clashed with Lewis Hamilton.
Reports indicated that after a discussion with the team and Red Bull Advisor Helmut Marko, Verstappen agreed to no longer participate in late-night sim racing before Grands Prix, but the Dutchman altered that narrative on Thursday.
Verstappen has told Red Bull “not to worry” about the situation, one which he is perfectly capable of handling himself.
“No, we talked about it, I said anyway you don’t need to worry, I said there’s no other race coming up,” Verstappen said.
“But no, it’s not like I have a ban or whatever. 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.”
The Red Bull driver went on to say he’s no stranger to balancing sim racing, a passion of his, with Formula 1 duties.
Verstappen successfully won this year’s Emilia Romgana GP after competing in a sim race the night prior and the Dutchman said he’s more than experienced enough to cope with juggling his commitments.
“Yeah, I raced until 3 a.m, it’s not something new,” he said. For me, it’s something very important in my life.
“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, 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.
“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 1, I think I know quite well what is possible.”
And to those who thought Verstappen’s sim racing directly caused his explosive radio communications in Hungary, the Dutchman had a few words of advice.
“People that don’t like my language, don’t listen in, turn the volume down you know,” he said.
“I’m very driven to success, I think I’ve proven that already, I always want to optimise stuff, now people can argue that he might not be so vocal on the radio but that’s their opinion.
“My opinion is that it needs to be said at the time to maybe also try and force that the second pit stop would have been a bit different, that’s how it goes.
“We are very open minded, critical of each other, it’s been working for us very well so I don’t expect that to change.”
To me it looks more like he’s been into arcade racing, the way he tries to crash his competitors out of the way in real life…