Peter Windsor weighs in on Max Verstappen’s 3am sim racing sessions

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Max Verstappen drew attention when he revealed that he took part in a sim race on the morning of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Dutchman was up until 3am taking part in a virtual 24-hours of Spa Francorchamps on iRacing with his Team Redline, after one of their teammates pulled out last minute.

Although he has previously taken part in sim racing during F1 race weekends, notably during the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix when he also stayed up until the early hours to complete a virtual 24 hours of the Nurburgring.

Discussing his sim-racing escapades on his YouTube livestream, Peter Windsor felt Verstappen was right to take part given his championship success.

Max Verstappen should be allowed to do sim racing says Peter Windsor

In the aftermath of the Hungarian GP weekend, team advisor Helmut Marko said Verstappen agreed that he would not take any further part in sim races during F1 weekends.

Windsor believes Verstappen should not be stopped from taking part if there is no direct impact on his performance on track.

“Max has won three world championships now, I think he knows what he’s doing. If people are coming up to him now before or after the Belgian Grand Prix and saying ‘Did you stay up too late?’ What is Max going to say to that?” said Windsor.

“‘Maybe I did, I’ll go to be earlier?’ Yeah right. He’ll just do his thing. He’s just going to say what he needs to say to stop people from asking these ridiculous questions. He’s a racer, if he wants to stay up on iRacing let him do it. All this grannying and nannying state of what time you have to go to bed now in F1.”

Why Max Verstappen drew criticism over sim racing

Much of the furor surrounding Verstappen’s sim racing was due to the expletive-ridden rants he went on during the Hungarian Grand Prix over team radio.

The Dutchman was seemingly unhappy with the way their strategy had played out, after the team made a series of errors during the pit stops which put him out of contention for the podium places.

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

This led to Verstappen’s temper being on full display over team radio, having voiced his displeasure to race engineer Giampiero Lambaise.

He finished the race in fifth place and away with 10 points, following a late collision with Lewis Hamilton while fighting for third which put him back down the order.