Verstappen Defended By Horner Over His Criticized Late-Night Online Racing Session

Monday, 22 July 2024 at 17:30

Red Bull leaders Christian Horner and Helmut Marko defended Max Verstappen after the last race amid criticism suggesting he was unprofessional.

Max Verstappen's third-worst result of the season came during the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix, as he finished in P5 after starting from P3.

The race was very tough for the Dutchman, and, in general, he was overly aggressive both on the team radio and on the track (according to F1 fans on social media).

The triple World Champion was not in a good mood because he was put on the wrong strategy, stuck behind Lewis Hamilton, and felt the stewards were against him.

He fought with his own race engineer on the team radio almost all-throughout the race, and the tension slowly increased until, ultimately, he made a bold move on Hamilton on lap 63, which resulted in a contact and a one-position drop (from P4 to P5).

Following the race, several experts, including Nico Rosberg, connected this poor weekend from the triple World Champion with his side hobby—participating in the virtual 24-hours of SPA.

Verstappen took part in the virtual race on Saturday night, after the qualifying session and ahead of the race on Sunday. According to Racingnews365, he played until 03:18 AM local time.

Could this have something to do with his aggressiveness? Did he lack sleep before the race? As reported by Autosport, 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."

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"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."

Verstappen also participated in a late-night virtual race during the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend. He won that one, so the critics couldn't really say anything wrong about his side hobby.

However, this time around, the 26-year-old had a shocking race, so he received heat for being unprofessional and not focused on his primary career. Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner also addressed this situation as he said, as per RacingNews365:

"He knows exactly what's required in a Grand Prix, and we trust his judgment."

"I think people draw conclusions. Max 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.