Max Verstappen demonstrated his diverse skills and remarkable endurance over the course of a demanding weekend, winning both the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and the virtual Nurburgring 24 Hours.
Max Verstappen emerged victorious at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in the most exciting way after Lando Norris engaged him a late battle despite leading much of the race. However, he kept his composure to win unaware that he was about to accomplish another goal which was the victory for Team Redline in the virtual Nurburgring 24 Hours.
On Friday, Team Redline announced that Verstappen would be driving the No. 20 BMW GT3, and naturally his fans wondered how he would participate during the F1 race weekend.
The virtual 24-hour race was scheduled on the same weekend as the Formula 1 race in Imola and since Verstappen takes sim racing seriously, he brought his simulator and installed it in his motorhome. So between F1 sessions, he ‘just got into action’ on the simulator.
The night before the race, the Red Bull Racing driver drove another four-hour stint on behalf of Team Redline. He didn’t stay up late, but was ready to get behind the sim’s wheel again in the morning. His last stint was over by 11:00am and at that point he was leading. After this, his teammates took over and drove the number 20 car to victory.
“It’s a 24-hour race and I think there are four of us on the car. But of course, I don’t have a lot of time, Saturday night and Sunday morning,” Verstappen said.
Surprisingly, the Red Bull star managed to clock in seven hours of sleep amidst this hectic schedule.
“Seven hours, I would prefer to sleep more,” he added. “But on a race weekend, seven hours is absolutely fine.”
Criticism concerning his divided attention between the tracks was met with a cool head: “If something goes wrong on Sunday they’ll say so. It doesn’t matter to me anyway. Look, as I just said, I think I’m professional enough that I know what can and can’t be done.”
Support from Team Redline was unequivocal, with spokesperson Luke Crane jokingly commenting on his mixed responsibilities, calling F1 Verstappen’s “hobby”, as quoted by Crash.net.
“We are the team that allows him to express himself in F1,” he said. “We allowed him to still do Imola, because we are that kind of team. We don’t want to ever stop our drivers from doing their hobbies. We’re very supportive, we’re never going to hold people back.”
The win at the virtual Nurburgring 24 Hours was a clinical one as the Team Redline managed their strategy and execution to the T. However, things did not sail as smoothly for Max Verstappen when it came to the Emilia Romagna GP weekend in Imola.
The Dutchman failed to register the fastest lap in all three practice sessions. That gave Charles Leclerc, who was fastest in the first two, and Oscar Piastri, who was fastest in the third, a hope for registering a win. However, Verstappen pulled off a stunning performance in qualifying and grabbed the pole position.
