Max Verstappen’s sleep quota addressed with ‘rubbish’ verdict given by Helmut Marko

Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko called it “rubbish” to suggest Max Verstappen taking part in a sim race overnight before the Hungarian Grand Prix contributed to his frustration over team radio on Sunday.

Verstappen engaged in a back-and-forth with engineer Gianpiero Lambiase throughout the race as he aired his frustrations, with the three-time World Champion eventually finishing fifth on Sunday.

Helmut Marko: Max Verstappen ‘got his sleep quota’ before Hungarian GP

Verstappen was taking part in a virtual 24 Hours of Spa event with his Team Redline outfit on Saturday night heading into Sunday morning, taking in a stint that took him past 3am local time before the Hungarian Grand Prix.

While that led to questions about whether or not he should have taken part, such events are also nothing new to the Red Bull driver, having long enjoyed sim racing – and took in a night stint in a virtual Nurburgring 24 Hours before winning the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix earlier this season.

Marko pointed this out after the Hungarian Grand Prix, and while Verstappen himself said to any critics in no uncertain terms that they could “f*** off”, the Red Bull motorsport advisor explained he was as prepared as usual to race.

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“He was up even longer in Imola, I don’t know where the sleeping times came from again, and won the race,” Marko said, as quoted by Autosport.

“Max has a different rhythm to me or other people and the time he went to bed is nothing out of the ordinary for him.

“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.”

As for his own messages, Verstappen explained that they were a result of simply feeling “annoyed” with how his afternoon transpired at the Hungaroring, going three consecutive races without victory for the first time since 2021.

“I was just annoyed with today,” he said.

“Maybe the team, at the time, didn’t realise what they did wrong, or they maybe didn’t see it was so severe.

“But, in the car, you have also different feelings. I already said yesterday that maybe some people are not on the same wavelength with it’s as severe as it is.

“I knew it was already going to be a difficult race and beating McLaren would be tough. But then you need, at least, to get a P3 over the line, and even that we couldn’t do.”

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