"I was tucked into bed by 9": Max Verstappen jokes at his own expense after Helmut Marko announced ban on late-night sim racing

Max Verstappen recently joked about how he was tucked into his bed early and was not allowed to race on his simulator late at night. This was after Red Bull's Helmut Marko announced that he would no longer sim race late into the night.

During the Hungarian GP, Max Verstappen was quite frustrated with Red Bull's strategy, due to which he was behind Lewis Hamilton and had to race for the third and last podium place. He expressed his anger on the radio and argued with his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase.

Later in the race, he tried a bold move against Hamilton on Turn 1 at Lap 64, which resulted in a crash. Verstappen went to the inside line and tried to overtake, while Hamilton turned in to take the corner. Their wheels collided, causing Verstappen's RB20's rear to lift off the ground.

At the end of the race, Max Verstappen fell off a few places and secured P5, while Lewis Hamilton defended and kept P3.

During and after the Hungarian GP, several people in the F1 space criticized Verstappen's behavior and performance and blamed his late-night sim racing sessions for it. The criticism triggered Helmut Marko to address Verstappen's sim racing.

In his exclusive column on "Speedweek", Marko wrote that Verstappen has agreed that he would no longer indulge in sim racing late at night during race weekends.

Following this ban on late-night sim racing, Max Verstappen joked about being asked to sleep as early as 9 pm when he featured on the Twitch stream of his eSports team, Redline (via X user "nini"):

"He had a night out last night so. Not me, of course. I was tucked in the bed by 9," Verstappen joked.

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Helmut Marko addresses Max Verstappen's late-night sim racing schedule

Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko recently wrote about Max Verstappen's late-night sim racing sessions and how it has affected his on-track performance in F1.

In his "Speedweek" column, the 81-year-old Austrian first addressed how Verstappen's frustration at Hungary was instantly linked with his late-night sim racing session before Sunday's Grand Prix. He then defended the Dutchman by reminding the readers how the driver participated in another sim racing event before the Imola GP and managed to win the F1 race on Sunday.

Helmut Marko explained how Max Verstappen has a different sleep schedule and only needs seven hours of sleep to perform at his best.

"Max Verstappen was rather thin-skinned this weekend, and clearly it didn't take long for criticism to arise - no wonder, since he plays sim racing half the night. I have to point out that in Imola he didn't go to bed until three in the morning after a sim racing session - and then he won the Grand Prix. Max has a different sleep schedule and he got his seven hours of sleep," he wrote.

Marko also explained that, since Verstappen's team Redline was missing a driver, the three-time F1 world champion himself had to clock in an extra stint to help the team.

"His late-night sim deployment on the Hungary weekend only came about because a driver in his team was unavailable. We have nevertheless agreed that he will no longer drive simulations this late in the future."