“Rubbish” to link Verstappen’s F1 radio anger to 3am sim racing antics

Red Bull thinks it “rubbish” to suggest Max Verstappen’s frustrations in Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix can be linked to him sim racing until 3am on Saturday night.

Verstappen came under fire from critics for his aggressive tone during the Hungaroring race as he repeatedly hit out at his pit wall for the bad strategy and lack of pace of the car.

Asked after the race for his response to critics who said he went too far in his aggressive language, a defiant Verstappen said: “They can all f**k off.”

The nature of Verstappen’s anger in the race came after he was spotted taking part in a sim race at 3am on Saturday night, which prompted some to suggest he was not as well rested as he needed to be.

But that is something that Red Bull does not think contributed to what happened – and insists that Verstappen knows exactly what he needs to do to be at his best.

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko said: “He was up even longer in Imola, I don’t know where the sleeping times came from again, and won the race.

“Max 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 ten 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.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, in the qualifying press conference

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: “I think people draw conclusions, but Max knows what’s required and we trust his judgement on that.

“He knows what it takes to drive a grand prix car and to win grands prix and be a world champion. And look, as a team, we always work as a team, and whatever discussions of how to improve will always not take place through media.”

But while not alarmed by Verstappen’s antics before the race, Red Bull has suggested that there might be the need for some discussions this week to discuss his ranting over the radio.

Marko suggested that it made sense to let the dust settle a little bit before the team discussed the matter behind closed doors.

“We’ll make sure that everything is postponed,” he said. “The more time there is between the individual meetings, the better it will be.”

Horner said that any talks over the radio messages would not be done in public, as he also clarified that a comment that Verstappen’s engineer Gianpiero Lambiase made about being ‘childish’ was about other drivers.

“GP at that point actually wasn’t referring to Max,” added Horner. “I think he was referring to others on the radio complaining about penalties. So I don’t think GP’s reference at that point was in reference to Max.

“Others obviously [want rivals to get] penalties, because obviously the stewards are listening to the radio as well.

“But look, they’ve been together for eight years and there’s things that we could have done better in the race today, but it’s something that we’ll talk about as a team.”

Horner added: “I think everybody sees that we need to find more performance. And everybody’s working hard to do that. So we’ll have whatever discussions behind closed doors.”