Max Verstappen says the sim racing chat did take place but there is nothing to worry about, as Alexander Albon adds his view on the matter.
The late sim racing point was raised after the Hungarian GP when Red Bull’s Verstappen had a below average outing. The blame was seemingly put on the Dutchman staying up late in the night before the Sunday’s race competing for his Team Redline.
This was the second instance after Verstappen stayed up late during the Emilia Romagna GP weekend where he took the win. Post Hungary, Helmut Marko noted about discussions with the Dutchman regarding him undertaking sim races late in the night.
The Austrian stated that they have agreed to disallow Verstappen staying up late in the night. “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,” Marko said to Sky Sports Germany.
“But still, you have to avoid things like this that are understandably attacked in public. It is a very strong recommendation. If a race doesn’t go the way you want it to and you finish in fifth place, for example, then you have to avoid this kind of thing.
“And we know that sim racing is his biggest hobby. It was also not his intention to drive a part in that race, until a team-mate had to give up,” summed up Marko. While Verstappen agreed on discussions, he refuted on coming to an agreement.
Since there are no events in the coming time, there will be no need for him to stay up late. He doesn’t see racing at night as problem still since he has been doing this for years now. “I raced until 3 AM, it’s not something new for me,” said Verstappen to media. “It’s something very important in my life.
“Now there are no other sim races coming up anyway, so no one needs to worry about that. But when you don’t win the race, you will always blame it on how you were staying up until 3 AM or your always one kilo overweight. There are always things to make up that you know you can argue about when you not win a race but for example in Imola I did win the race both of them, so for me this is not something new.
“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, so I know pretty well what I can and can not do. I’m always very hard on myself what is allowed and what isn’t allowed so with all the experience I have I know what is possible.
“We talked about it. I said you don’t need to worry about it because there’s no other race coming up. But I don’t have a ban. I also don’t need to tell them you what they do in their private time and during the weekends and it is the same for me,” summed up Verstappen. His former teammate Albon came in the Dutchman’s defence.
The Thai feels every driver has his way of doing and handling things. Recalling the 2021 season, Albon was impressed how relaxed Verstappen was in the fight against Lewis Hamilton. “I think he [Marko] kind of knew you to it for the most part,” he said. “Every driver has their own technique or style approach to racing.
“Some drivers want to crunch the day to others, perform better when they’re more free-minded. I think Max maybe falls more towards that side of things. He’s a pretty relaxed individual to the most part. I remember in 2021 when they were fighting for the title, still very impressively relaxed.
“I wouldn’t have been as relaxed as him, that’s for sure. Not my place to say, but I do think I don’t really see much of an issue with what he does behind the scenes. You’ve enjoyed your bits in racing over the years. Could you imagine staying up until 3 AM on the early hours of a grand prix race day and then going into that grand prix?
“I mean, we get up pretty late on Sundays. It’s pretty relaxed. I don’t know, I think it’s just who you are. I think it’s really hard to say one driver should do one thing because that’s the norm or that’s what’s expected. If there’s anything I’ve learnt from my work in motorsport has been, in the beginning when I first joined F1.
“I wanted to know everything. I had a notebook, I wrote all the things, I memorised everything. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realised actually the more I just relax into it and just take things a bit more, not putting so much pressure on myself and emphasis on myself, then the results came more natural. So there’s different ways. I would say, I don’t know, 3 AM, is it too much? I don’t know what time he wakes up on a Sunday.”
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