Helmut Marko ‘rubbishes’ claims of Max Verstappen’s late night sim race affecting his performance at Hungarian GP
Throughout the weekend, commentators and experts took jibe at Max Verstappen for overlapping his sim racing venture with F1.
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Max Verstappen, Helmut Marko, and Christian Horner (Via: Imago)
During the Hungarian GP weekend, Red Bull ran into trouble as its upgrades did not work as intended. This hampered Max Verstappen during the race, who shared multiple anger-charged messages towards the team and others. However, his frustration was pointed out by multiple experts and was claimed to be due to him sim racing in the 24 hours of Spa the night before. This urged Helmut Marko to step in to dismiss such claims and reckoned them to be rubbish.
Max Verstappen has been the dominant force in F1. The Dutchman has won 41 races out of the last 75 races. On the other hand, the Dutchman has achieved this feat while also being a part of the sim racing team, Redline Racing, which he co-owns. Despite his previous successes in both championships, commentators took multiple digs at Verstappen for staying up late to race in the sim for the 24 hours of Spa for his grumpy nature over the radio.
These digs were not entertained by the paddock and especially the Red Bull camp, who reckoned such claims to be rubbish.
He[Verstappen] was up even longer in Imola, I don't know where the sleeping times came from again, and won the race. Max[Verstappen] has a different rhythm to me or other people and the time he went to bed is nothing out of the ordinary for him. He didn't even wake up at 10 o'clock in Zandvoort when the helicopters flew over his motorhome. He's got his sleep quota. He's had it as usual. That's rubbish.Helmut Marko said in an interview as quoted by AutoSport
Helmut Marko explained that Verstappen had previously stayed awake to do 24-hour endurance races even during the Emilia Romagna weekend. So such allegations were nonsense according to the Austrian as he stated that the reigning champion takes care of his sleep schedule and is well rested to take part in the Grand Prix.
Christian Horner shared a similar verdict regarding Max Verstappen’s sim racing venture
Despite being lamented by the experts for driving in the sim before the race, the Dutchman’s stint came to be useful as his team won the 24 hours of Spa when the chequered flag fell with a comfortable margin. Depicting his strength both on and off the track, Christian Horner joined in to defend the 26-year-old.
Horner claimed that the team had trust in Verstappen’s judgment.
He[Verstappen] knows exactly what's required in a Grand Prix and we trust his judgment. I think people draw conclusions. Max[Verstappen] knows what's required, he knows what it takes to drive a Grand Prix car and to win Grand Prix and be a world champion. As a team, we always work as a team and whatever discussions of how to reprove will always not take place in the media.Christian Horner said in an interview with RacingNews365
The Brit reckoned that people drew conclusions from the surface. However, in reality, things were different as he explained that the reigning champion is well aware of the intricacies going on during a race weekend and knows how to manage his time.
Despite being battered for racing in the sim, the Dutchman does not care about the criticism that he has received. Moreover, multiple fans and journalists condemned such behavior as they reckoned it to be unnecessary.
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Geetansh Pasricha
(772 Articles Published)