“I want things to be done better,” Max Verstappen said after the Hungarian GP, frustrated with Red Bull’s strategic errors. Starting in an uncharacteristic P3, the 3-time champion hoped to finish P3, if not catch McLaren. However, he lost two places to Mercedes and Ferrari’s well-executed undercuts to finish P5. His petulant radio messages criticizing Red Bull’s pit wall only damaged his reputation, with fans blaming his late-night sim racing for such irritability. Addressing this matter, team advisor Helmut Marko has issued a resounding statement.

iRacing’s 24 hours of Spa was scheduled for the same weekend as the Hungarian GP. After qualifying on Saturday, Max Verstappen contributed to his e-racing team, Team Redline’s participation in the event, racing till around 3 am. Highlighting this point pre-race, 2016 F1 champion Nico Rosberg expressed how “disappointed” he was with the reigning champion’s lack of discipline. Verstappen’s vexation with Red Bull’s race decisions led more fans to support Rosberg’s words. They theorized how the Dutchman’s lack of sleep was to blame for his short-tempered behavior with the team.

Helmut Marko, who is Verstappen’s close aide, has rubbished such theories. “He was up even longer in Imola,” the 81-year-old said, referring to Verstappen’s similar late-night sim racing during the Emilia Romagna GP weekend. “I don’t know where the sleeping times came from again, and won the race. Max has a different rhythm to me or other people, and the time he went to bed is nothing out of the ordinary for him. He didn’t even wake up at 10 o’clock in Zandvoort when the helicopters flew over his motorhome. He’s got his sleep quota. He’s had it as usual. That’s rubbish,” Marko concluded, not letting his star driver face the brunt of unnecessary blame.

Similar to Team Redline’s victory at the 24 hours of  Nurburgring during the Imola weekend, Verstappen & Co. won the iRacing event yesterday as well. This was the only consolation for him on an otherwise woeful day. His rage-filled interactions with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase also became a hot topic of conversation. However, Team Principal Christian Horner refrained from publicly discussing this issue.

Christian Horner readies for a serious conversation with Max Verstappen

After Adrian Newey’s exit, Red Bull has lost performance and McLaren has replaced them at the top. Playing second fiddle to them was all Max Verstappen could do in Hungary, and that’s all he wanted to do. But this time, Red Bull’s strategy wasn’t picture-perfect. After the Dutchman’s second pit stop, he came out behind Charles Leclerc‘s Ferrari.

Unable to control the circumstances, Verstappen pushed harder than usual on the new set of Hard tires. “Well that’s some gentle introduction,” his race engineer ‘GP’ sarcastically remarked. “Don’t give me that ****. You guys gave me this ******* strategy, ok? I’m trying to rescue what’s left,” he said in a profanity-filled reply.

In another instance, after Verstappen collided with Lewis Hamilton, GP refused to be embroiled in a “radio fight” about it. “It’s childish on the radio, childish,” he added. Addressing these interactions post-race, Christian Horner said, “Everybody sees that we need to find more performance, and everybody’s working hard to do that. We’ll have whatever discussions behind closed doors.”

The Red Bull boss also explained how GP’s “childish” comment wasn’t directed at Verstappen. “I think he’s referring to others on the radio complaining about penalties,” he concluded. Hopefully, Red Bull will be in a more peaceful state when F1 travels to Belgium this weekend. The Spa de Francorchamps is a dangerous circuit, having witnessed several driver deaths. The last thing a team would want there is for their driver to be distracted.