Double World Champion Max Verstappen was sensationally accused by the commentators of last weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours Virtual for throwing a “hissy fit” and for ‘bailing out’ of the race, with the Dutchman having labelled the event as a “clown show”.
The 25-year-old had a less than enjoyable time in the world’s biggest race in the sim-racing world, with the Dutchman and his team having suffered multiple disconnections from the servers whilst leading the race.
By the time his side had reconnected, they’d slipped from the lead to P17, and were over a lap and a half behind their team-mates who’d inherited the lead.
The technical issues seemingly became too much for the #1 Team Redline outfit, who quit the race following a second technical issue.
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Verstappen’s side had been looking good to win the race, having led for the opening seven hours.
Red Bull’s star driver was clearly furious with what had gone on during the race, which was red-flagged twice prior to Verstappen’s retirement following a “suspected security breach”.
Moments after retiring from the race, Verstappen shared his thoughts about the race on his Twitch stream.
“They can’t even control their own game,” Verstappen told his Twitch stream
“This is already the third time this has happened to me, getting kicked off the game while doing this race. It’s also the last time I’m ever participating, because what’s the point?
“You prepare for five months to try to win this championship, you’re leading the championship, you’re trying to win this race that you’ve been preparing for for two months, and they handle it like this.
“There have been two red flags, they cancelled the rain, because maybe that’s already a big influence, and people are still getting disconnected, and at one point we were hit by it, and they’re just not dealing with it, because they need even more people to disconnect.
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“Honestly, it’s a joke. You cannot call this an event. [It’s a] clown show. That’s why it’s better to retire the car.”
Since his outburst, the Dutchman has been criticised for causing ‘toxicity’ on social media, with ex-F1 driver Romain Grosjean having likened Verstappen’s connection issues to a real-life mechanical fault.
Many, though, have sided with the Dutchman, with the organisers of the event having been criticised for using sim-racing platform rFactor 2.