Substitute understands Verstappen's choice: "He's got a lot to lose"

Now that the entire motorsport world has come to a standstill, many organisations have chosen to opt for virtual replacements, so the fans still have something to watch. This is also the case for Formula 1, but many current drivers have decided not to participate.

One of those drivers is Max Verstappen, who has little experience with F1 2019 and doesn't feel like constantly switching between the official F1 game and iRacing, the sim program the Dutchman uses. "I certainly understand that decision", says Philipp Eng in conversation with Motorsport.com. The DTM driver is the replacement for Verstappen in the digital Red Bull Racing seat.

Racing against sim specialists

"Max has to drive in those virtual races against sim specialists and as a real Formula 1 driver he has a lot more to lose compared to the rest. If I had become fifteenth instead of third in that first race, it wouldn't have been a disaster for me. With Max people would have been speculating right away", Eng explains.

The DTM driver also understands the argument that Verstappen makes about switching between programs. "Max is very active in iRacing and very good at it, but I've noticed it myself: when you switch between games, it's not just the car that changes. I especially noticed that with F1 2019. I had to train a lot to be fast. In any case, I shouldn't have started preparing much later", the Austrian jokes. At his first attempt Eng was at least successful, with only Guanyu Zhou and Stoffel Vandoorne in front of him.