Winning always and in any case, this is Max Verstappen's life - and sporting - rule, we've learned it by now and it's no longer news, a strategy that Max also adopts for online races, usually in iRacing with his Redline team. As proof of the fact that the Dutch champion, even on the simulator, thinks only of winning and does not digest results other than the virtual triumph, is what happened on the afternoon of Saturday 15 July, when Verstappen was disqualified for unsporting behavior during the "Golden Toast GP” organized by the VCO Esports online portal on iRacing. The video below clearly clarifies what happened, but let's summarize the details.
About an hour and fifty minutes from the final checkered flag, on the Spa-Francorchamps track, Verstappen is in fifth position with his Porsche 911 GT3 RSR #11 of team Redline, followed by the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo of rival Sven Haase . However, the professional simdriver misses the braking point at La Source and collides with Max, who charges into his teammate Diogo Pinto. Quite a hit-and-miss especially for the Dutchman, who slips to eighth place while Haase finds himself second. At this point the idea of revenge materializes: Verstappen runs the Kemmel straight at full speed, cuts Les Combes cleanly and, having arrived in the rival's exhausts, hits him right in, without braking, at the next corner. The replays are also eloquent for the Race Direction: the Dutchman deliberately put an opponent out of the race,
Similar incidents happen on public servers, but are very rare among professional virtual racers. Among other things, the race, lasting a total of three hours and with 55 rather well-known participants in the iRacing field, was a sort of goliardic event that was giving away a prize of a few euros and 500 dollars to be donated to charity. For the record, the final victory went to the BMW M4 GT3 of the Urano Esports team driven by Alexey Nesov, while Sven Haase was forced to retire after contact with Verstappen.
On another occasion, the Dutch Formula 1 champion had behaved in the same way, again in iRacing, but at the wheel of a virtual Formula 3 and that time too he had been disqualified from the race. Remember when Schumacher tried to kick Villeneuve out? He didn't succeed, Villeneuve won the same race and championship, while the German ended up in the gravel. However, the Ferrari driver was disqualified from the race and even the points won in the championship were deprived of him! Could it be that Verstappen - among other things a repeat offender - should be penalized more heavily, also considering that the rear-ended opponent ended up outside and it was also a charity event for fun? For example, the Dutch driver's iRacing license could be suspended for 6 months! Whereas, by his own admission,
Evidently, however, Max is convinced that he can do whatever he wants in simracing, precisely because he is Verstappen and the others must not "dare" to harm him. Surely he doesn't accept that other simdrivers can be faster than him, but he finds it unacceptable that someone can touch and damage him, even if the fact was clearly a driving error, among other things in traffic conditions and with very close cars. In that case the Dutchman "closes his vein" and turns into a virtual executioner. Max in the simulator is not afraid of getting hurt (but neither is he at the wheel of the Red Bull), he is not afraid of the damages that are not paid for (and in F1 with a budget cap the story is very different...) and he doesn't have to answer to a Helmut Marko, if only for bad publicity,
From our point of view, this is absolutely unacceptable, even more so because the protagonist is an F1 champion who should really set a good example. iRacing should intervene very severely, precisely because he is Verstappen. We also find it very strange that a team as well-known and renowned as Team Redline hasn't taken a tough position towards its driver... Maybe they fear the executioner too?
About an hour and fifty minutes from the final checkered flag, on the Spa-Francorchamps track, Verstappen is in fifth position with his Porsche 911 GT3 RSR #11 of team Redline, followed by the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo of rival Sven Haase . However, the professional simdriver misses the braking point at La Source and collides with Max, who charges into his teammate Diogo Pinto. Quite a hit-and-miss especially for the Dutchman, who slips to eighth place while Haase finds himself second. At this point the idea of revenge materializes: Verstappen runs the Kemmel straight at full speed, cuts Les Combes cleanly and, having arrived in the rival's exhausts, hits him right in, without braking, at the next corner. The replays are also eloquent for the Race Direction: the Dutchman deliberately put an opponent out of the race,
Similar incidents happen on public servers, but are very rare among professional virtual racers. Among other things, the race, lasting a total of three hours and with 55 rather well-known participants in the iRacing field, was a sort of goliardic event that was giving away a prize of a few euros and 500 dollars to be donated to charity. For the record, the final victory went to the BMW M4 GT3 of the Urano Esports team driven by Alexey Nesov, while Sven Haase was forced to retire after contact with Verstappen.
On another occasion, the Dutch Formula 1 champion had behaved in the same way, again in iRacing, but at the wheel of a virtual Formula 3 and that time too he had been disqualified from the race. Remember when Schumacher tried to kick Villeneuve out? He didn't succeed, Villeneuve won the same race and championship, while the German ended up in the gravel. However, the Ferrari driver was disqualified from the race and even the points won in the championship were deprived of him! Could it be that Verstappen - among other things a repeat offender - should be penalized more heavily, also considering that the rear-ended opponent ended up outside and it was also a charity event for fun? For example, the Dutch driver's iRacing license could be suspended for 6 months! Whereas, by his own admission,
Evidently, however, Max is convinced that he can do whatever he wants in simracing, precisely because he is Verstappen and the others must not "dare" to harm him. Surely he doesn't accept that other simdrivers can be faster than him, but he finds it unacceptable that someone can touch and damage him, even if the fact was clearly a driving error, among other things in traffic conditions and with very close cars. In that case the Dutchman "closes his vein" and turns into a virtual executioner. Max in the simulator is not afraid of getting hurt (but neither is he at the wheel of the Red Bull), he is not afraid of the damages that are not paid for (and in F1 with a budget cap the story is very different...) and he doesn't have to answer to a Helmut Marko, if only for bad publicity,
From our point of view, this is absolutely unacceptable, even more so because the protagonist is an F1 champion who should really set a good example. iRacing should intervene very severely, precisely because he is Verstappen. We also find it very strange that a team as well-known and renowned as Team Redline hasn't taken a tough position towards its driver... Maybe they fear the executioner too?
