Max Verstappen mocks himself on sim racing stream after receiving Red Bull curfew
Red Bull and Max Verstappen have reached a compromise over the driver's sim racing hobby.
Max Verstappen poked fun at himself on a recent sim racing stream after enduring a frustrating Grand Prix weekend in Hungary. The reigning world champion was criticised after competing online until 3am on the morning of the race.
Verstappen has made a habit out of breezing to race victories after late-night gaming sessions, but his unusual sleep schedule has been brought into the spotlight by a sequence of underwhelming results on the track.
The 26-year-old was virtually unstoppable last season, winning 19 out of 22 races and breezing to his third Drivers' Championship. But as Red Bull's rivals have closed the gap, Verstappen has now gone three Grands Prix without standing at the top of the podium.
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He fumed over the team radio in Hungary as a string of questionable strategy decisions, combined with a lack of pace compared to McLaren, saw him splutter to a P5 finish. But the Red Bull man saw the funny side after hopping back on sim racing with his online team-mates.
Before the start of a virtual race, Verstappen said: "We missed something," before playing the Dutch national anthem. When his team-mate asked what 'that noise' was, Verstappen responded: "Something we haven't heard in a while!"
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko recently revealed that Verstappen has agreed to a sim racing curfew and will no longer be competing late into the night on the eve of a Grand Prix.
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That topic also came up on stream, as Verstappen said after mentioning a friend's night out partying: "Not me, of course. I was tucked into bed by 9pm."
The Red Bull star will be desperate to get back to winning ways in Belgium - the country of his birth - this weekend. A victory would maintain his commanding lead at the top of the Drivers' Championship heading into the four-week summer break.
It would also restore confidence in the Red Bull camp ahead of another Verstappen homecoming once racing resumes, with the Dutch Grand Prix scheduled for August 25.
McLaren and Mercedes have shared the last three race victories between them, with Oscar Piastri opening his Grand Prix account in Hungary last time out. Verstappen finished more than 21 seconds off the pace, collided with old foe Lewis Hamilton and had a fiery row with his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, on a nightmare afternoon.
