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F1 world champion and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen had another unfortunate outing in the sim-racing world as he bowed out of the 12 hours of Sebring.
The Dutch driver, who has a sim racing team named Team Redline, is very passionate about virtual racing and often spends his time off between F1 races on the simulator. He participated virtually in the 12 hours of Sebring and made a superb start and got into an early lead.
However, his race was cut short after he met with an accident with another car in the GTB class, which forced him to pit. Post a lengthy repair job lasting around six minutes, Team Redline decided to call it a day.
He previously expressed his frustrations about the 'incompetence' of the Virtual Le Mans 24-hour organizers. He said on his live stream:
“They call it amazingly bad luck…well this is just incompetence. They can’t even control their own game. This is the third time already that has happened to me now, being kicked off the game while doing this race.
“This is also the last time ever because what’s the point? You prepare for five months to try and win this Championship, you are leading the Championship, you try to win this race which you have prepared for two months and they handle it like this. Honestly, it is a joke. You cannot even call it an event. It’s a clown show,"
“They’re in a different league" - Carlos Sainz on Max Verstappen and Red Bull
Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz mentioned that Max Verstappen and Red Bull were 'in a different league' in the 2023 season after their dominant start to the new campaign.
Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Sainz said:
“They’re in a different league. Unfortunately, this is a car sport more than drivers; we know that makes the difference more. Although Red Bull has a very strong line-up, obviously, but if a car is really good, all the other drivers can’t do much to stay in that fight.
“I’ve never been a fan of being concerned with one team dominating because if they’ve done such a good job, they deserve it. I wish it was us, and then I would get really angry if people were concerned that we are dominating in Formula 1.”
It is hard to blame Max Verstappen and Red Bull for their current dominance in the sport as it speaks of their excellence in understanding the new regulations introduced last year.
