Red Bull reach new agreement with Max Verstappen over late-night sim racing

Max Verstappen speaking with Helmut Marko in the Red Bull garage

Helmut Marko has backed down from a complete ban on Max Verstappen competing in late-night sim races, instead agreeing to a loose midnight curfew with the triple World Champion.

Verstappen came in for some stick for his irritable radio exchanges with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase at the Hungarian Grand Prix when it emerged the driver had been up until 3am taking part in the iRacing Spa 24 Hours.

Helmut Marko’s ‘very strong recommendation’ to Max Verstappen

Finishing fifth on the day, Verstappen’s surly mood and sweary comments were blamed on his late-night antics, as Sky F1 commentator David Croft repeatedly told viewers.

Red Bull motorsport advisor Marko responded by banning Verstappen from late-night sim racing on Grand Prix weekends.

“His late-night sim race on the Hungarian weekend only came about because a driver in his team was cancelled,” he told Speedweek.

“Nevertheless, we have agreed that he will no longer drive sims so late in future.”

But with Verstappen making it clear that his private time was his own, Marko has backed down and instead imposed on a curfew on Red Bull’s triple World Champion.

“We have agreed that in the future he will not drive well past 00:00, even though he has a completely different rhythm of life,” he told Sky Deutschland.

“But still, you have to avoid things like this that are understandably attacked in public.”

The curfew, though, is more of a “very strong recommendation” than a rule.

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Verstappen was asked in the build-up to the Belgian Grand Prix about Marko’s comments and made it very clear his private time is his.

“We talked about it,” Verstappen told the assembled media including PlanetF1.com, “There is no other sim race coming up anyway, so no one needs to worry about that.

“So no, it’s not that 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, and that’s the same to me.

“Racing till 3am is not something new and, for me, it’s something very important in my life.”

He in fact won the Imola Grand Prix despite also taking part in a late-night sim race that weekend.

“It’s always when you don’t win the race, [people] will always blame it on: ‘Ahh, he’s staying up until 3am or he’s being one kilo overweight,’” he said.

“There are always things to make up that you can argue about when you’re not winning a race.

“But, for example, in Imola I do win the race – both of them. I’ve been doing this since 2015. So for me, this is not something that is any different in my preparation.

“I mean, I’ve won three World Championships, I think I know pretty well what I can and what I cannot do.

“I’m always very hard on myself, on what is allowed and isn’t allowed, so I think with all the experience that I have in Formula 1, I know quite well what is possible.”

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