Red Bull is taking measures to prevent Max Verstappen from engaging in sim racing late into the night during Formula 1 weekends.
Despite Dr Helmut Marko, a team advisor and Verstappen's mentor for many years, acknowledging that Red Bull should be held partly accountable for Verstappen's irritability at the Hungarian GP recently, the decision stands.
Marko has specifically blamed Verstappen's race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, for ongoing disputes over the team radio. "Emotions ran high," he commented to Speed Week, "with comments that were inappropriate, to put it politely, from the race engineer and also from Max."
At 81, Marko noted that Lewis Hamilton "turned in" on Verstappen during their ill-fated encounter and mentioned that the car improvements for the Hungary GP didn't live up to expectations "quite to the extent we had hoped."
Marko 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."
He further mentioned that despite Verstappen's unusual sleeping habits, he managed to secure a win at Imola after a similar night. "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."
Looking ahead to the Belgian GP, Marko stated that Spa Francorchamps is "one of Max's favourite tracks" and is hopeful as it "should go our way."
Verstappen, however, is reportedly set to start ten places back on the grid on Sunday due to the installation of a fifth power unit.
Meanwhile, Sergio Perez continues to battle with his form, which raises ongoing concerns about his future with Red Bull. "Hungary was typical of Perez, I would say," Marko noted. "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 added. "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."
