Christian Horner issues response to Max Verstappen’s 3am sim racing stint in Hungary

Christian Horner insists Red Bull “trust” Max Verstappen’s judgment after the driver stayed up until 3am on the Sunday of the Hungarian GP to contest a sim racing event.

Verstappen and his Team Redline took part in the 24 Hours of Spa event that began on the Saturday of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend and finished on the Sunday.

Christian Horner weighs in on Max Verstappen’s late-night sim racing

But with one of his team-mates unable to take their turn in the car, Verstappen did two stints with the second one only ending at 3am.

What followed later that day was a difficult Hungarian Grand Prix for the Red Bull driver, one marred by testy radio exchanges with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase as he brought his car home in fifth place.

Verstappen came under fire from the likes of Sky F1’s David Croft, who throughout the broadcast of the race kept bringing attention to Verstappen’s late night.

The reigning World Champion made his thoughts on that clear, saying, “They can all f**k off”, but Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has since revealed they’d spoken and decided he would “no longer drive sims so late in future”.

As for Horner’s take on the late-night sim racing, the Red Bull team boss told the media: “He knows exactly what’s required in a grand prix and we trust his judgment.”

However, told that it looks as if Verstappen ‘can do basically anything he wants’, the team boss replied: “I think people draw conclusions.

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“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.

“As a team, we always work as a team and whatever discussions of how to reprove will always not take place in the media.”

Verstappen finished the Hungarian Grand Prix in fifth place, which marked the third time this season he’d completed a grand prix off the podium.

Yet another sign that Red Bull’s rivals have closed the gap on the reigning World Champions, Horner concedes that was always expected.

“With stable regulations, the margin gains… you’re into a curve where the gains are going to become harder and harder to find,” he said.

“Now, that’s normal. That’s the normal cycle. I’ve been in this business 20 years, that’s what happens.

“Now, [it] doesn’t mean you accept it, it means you’ve just got to work harder to find the incremental gains and execute good races and be on the top of your game, and we know we need to improve in the second half of the year.”

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