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Max Verstappen recently channeled his inner Toto Wolff during an online sim racing event, much to the amusement of many fans. The Dutchman is currently involved in a virtual 24H of Daytona event with his long-standing esports team Redline.
On Friday, Verstappen was on the board radio when a team member, Gianni Vecchio, was on the receiving end of a shunt on track. The incident drew a Wolff-ish response from the Dutchman, who quickly noted:
“So instead of giving up the spot, he drives you out of the way... I’ll report it to Michael Masi.”
Moments later a high-pitched voice can be heard saying:
“No Mikey! Nooo!”
Take a look at the entire exchange in this hilarious Instagram video:
The entire episode is obviously reminiscent of the time Toto Wolff lost his bearings during the end of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. An irate Wolff was heard voicing his displeasure at race director Michael Masi towards the end of the event where Max Verstappen won his maiden world title.
The Mercedes team principal's tirade became a source of laughter for many Verstappen fans, who used his words in various ways to poke fun at the the Austrian and his team.
Jokes aside, Verstappen will hope for a better showing at the 24H of Daytona event than he had at the 24H of Le Mans. The 2021 F1 world champion caught a kerb at Ford's Chicane and suffered substantial damage seven hours into the race. He was forced to retire from the event as a result.
Max Verstappen feels 2021 title victory would have come sooner sans Silverstone crash
Max Verstappen feels he could have won his maiden F1 world title a lot sooner had he not crashed during the 2021 British Grand Prix.
The 24-year-old suffered a crash with an impact of 51g during the opening lap of the feature race at Silverstone. He was engaged in a wheel-to-wheel battle with title rival Lewis Hamilton at the time.
When asked about Verstappen's misfortunes during the 2021 season, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said:
“There have been some big moments... It was important to come back strong, and Max (Verstappen) did that, and then Silverstone was a key moment, and again how he came back from that.”
Verstappen added to Horner's statement by saying:
“Same as Christian (Horner). Headbutting the tire wall in Silverstone wasn’t that great.”
The Dutchman had three DNFs in 2021. Two of those came as a direct result of combating Lewis Hamilton. Despite that, he ended the season with 18 podium finishes, setting a new F1 record in the process.
