Red Bull Has Had About Enough Of Max Verstappen's Late Night Sim Racing Sessions

I think a lot of us have been trading sleep hours for some late-night College Football 25 sessions. I know I have. But no matter how badly I want to lead the UCF Knights to another National Championship (2017 National Champs; look it up), I'm not going to let video games get between me and my work.

It appears the same cannot be said for Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen.

The Red Bull Racing driver's video game poison isn't College Football 25, instead, it's sim racing, and according to Motorsport.com, Verstappen competes for Team Redline, a top-level team that competes in endurance events.

He's been doing this for quite some time and has even competed in some virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans events. It's awesome and sim racing is awesome, but that habit seemed to catch up to Verstappen this past weekend.

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It was alluded to a couple of times by Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft that Verstappen had been up late the night before sim racing, and considering Verstappen seemed to be very irritable both on the radio about his team's strategy and on track where the frustrated Dutchman nearly crashed out of the race thanks to a dive bomb he launched on Lewis Hamilton en route to a P5 finish.

It appears that this really is the case, and Red Bull Special Advisor Helmut Marko wrote about it in the weekly column he does for the website SpeedWeek.com.

"Max Verstappen was rather thin-skinned this weekend, and of course, it didn't take long for criticism to arise — no wonder, since he spends half the night playing sim racing," Marko wrote.

"I have to say that in Imola he didn't go to bed until three in the morning after a sim racing session - and then won the Grand Prix. Max has a different sleep pattern, and he had his seven hours of sleep."

Max Verstappen had a disappointing day at the office in Hungary, and it seems that's partially thanks to a late night sim racing sesh. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Red Bull, Verstappen Agree To No More Late Night Sim Racing

Traveling as much as F1 drivers do would make sleeping a challenge as it is, then imagine throwing a few hours of sim racing late at night on top of it. 

Brutal.

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

Well, that might be the end of sleep-deprived Max Verstappen. He'll certainly want to be rested up ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, the final race before the summer break.

Spa is the longest track on the calendar, so that's a challenge, but Verstappen also has the stiffest competition he has faced in years with the charging McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri tightening the championship race.