Verstappen refutes sim racing ban: 'Don't determine their free time either'

In Hungary, the Red Bull Racing driver faced criticism when he participated in the virtual 24 Hours of Spa until the middle of the night. Nico Rosberg, among others, accused the three-time world champion of a lack of professionalism.

Helmut Marko revealed last week that agreements had been made with Verstappen. "We agreed that in the future he will not be in the simulator so late," he said. This, even though Verstappen had 'just' got his minimum seven hours of sleep in Budapest.

No sim racing ban according to Verstappen

Verstappen remembers the conversation and agreements with Red Bull differently, according to an interview with international media. Speaking to GPblog and others, he said, "No, we talked about it. I said you don't need to worry like I just said, there's no other race coming up. 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 during the weekends, and that's the same for me."

Verstappen thinks the criticism he received was a bit exaggerated. There was no question of inferior preparation, according to him, also pointing to the fact that he also drove late in the sim at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in mid-May. At Imola, Verstappen won the Grand Prix. "In Imola, I do win the race race both of them. 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'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 regarding what is allowed and isn't allowed, so I think with all the experience that I have in Formula 1 I think I know quite well what is possible"

"I raced until 3am. It's not something new, and for me, it's something very important in my life. There are no other sim races coming up anyway, so no one needs to worry about that. When you don't win the race, you will always blame it on the fact you were staying up until 3 a.m. Always one kilo overweight. There are always things to make up that you can argue about when you don't win a race," concluded Verstappen.

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy