No more late-night sim racing for bad-tempered Verstappen

Red Bull will put a stop to Max Verstappen’s habit of staying up late for sim racing during Formula 1 race weekends.

That is despite the fact that Dr Helmut Marko, team advisor and Verstappen’s long-time mentor, said Red Bull deserves much of the blame for the triple world champion’s bad mood in Hungary last weekend.

In fact, Marko even pointed the finger at Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase for the race-long radio arguments. "Emotions ran high," he told Speed Week, "with comments that were inappropriate, to put it politely, from the race engineer and also from Max."

Marko, 81, added that Lewis Hamilton "turned in" on Verstappen when the pair clashed, and said the Hungary GP car upgrade did not perform "quite to the extent we had hoped".

However, the Austrian admitted: "Max was rather thin-skinned over the weekend, and of course it didn’t take long for criticism to arise. No wonder, since he spent half the night playing sim racing."

Marko added that Verstappen, 26, won at Imola after a similar late night on the eve of a grand prix, as he has "a different sleep pattern, and he had his seven hours of sleep".

"His late-night sim appearance on the Hungary weekend only came about because a driver in his team had dropped out," he explained. "Nevertheless, we agreed that he would no longer race on these simulators so late in the future".

As for this weekend’s Belgian GP, Marko said Spa Francorchamps is "one of Max’s favourite tracks" that is expected to suit the 2024 car, so "that should go our way".

However, authoritative reports suggest that Verstappen will have to move back ten places on the grid on Sunday due to having a fifth power unit fitted.

An even bigger concern for Red Bull, meanwhile, is Sergio Perez’s ongoing struggle for pace and consistency - as a big question-mark continues to hang over the Mexican’s place on the team.

"Hungary was typical of Perez, I would say," said Marko. "Unpredictable. Very good on Friday, only just behind Verstappen and with the best long runs of all the drivers - then unfortunately a stupid mistake in qualifying followed by a strong race to seventh place.

"He continues to have this up and down," he continued. "Nobody knows when he will shine or when he will make a mistake. He simply lacks consistently good performance.

"Defending the drivers’ title will certainly be less difficult than defending the constructors’ championship," Marko concluded. "Our main problem is that we have scored far too few points with Checo in the last few races."