Max Verstappen has found himself at the centre of a storm after a British racing driver faced criticisms on social media for calling out the Red Bull star’s actions in a sim race. Verstappen has caused controversy after he deliberately crashed into an opponent in a virtual race last weekend when he didn’t have an F1 race.
However, Verstappen wanted redemption and cut Spa-Francorchamps’ Les Combes corner before purposely crashing into Haase. Former British Touring Car driver Bradley Philpot issued a dig at Verstappen over the weekend as he shared footage of the incident on Twitter.
He sarcastically wrote: “Max has really matured as a driver.” But, Philpot was hit with complaints on social media as many highlighted the race was fake.
@aleksan30409461 added: “Pointless to make comparison, with real time event. This is video game, virtual world.” (sic) @AlbertKnol4 commented: “It’s a video game Bradley.”
Meanwhile, @willallis said: “Let’s not pretend we’ve not all assassinated someone on purpose on an F1 game open lobby.”
However, Philpot hit back at the remarks and highlighted that Verstappen himself takes online racing seriously. He added: “Some of the replies I’ve had to this clip of M*x deliberately crashing into someone in @iRacing are hilarious.
“For all the ‘it’s only a video game’ responses – you’re (sort of) right. It’s a professionally organised sim racing competition that drivers have prepared for weeks for. But why do you think that makes it better? Why does Max care enough to retaliate if it’s ‘just a game’ to him?
“That actually makes it worse. He shouldn’t care but he clearly does.” Verstappen had a meltdown after he was disconnected from the Le Mans 24 Hours virtual race in January.
He threatened to delete the game from his computer and accused organisers of hosting a “clown show”. He recently told CNN that racing virtually was “not a game” and even outlined plans to take sim racers into the real world.
The 25-year-old said: “I love my sim racing. Some people think it’s just a game, but it’s not. I have a lot of passion in that and I have a lot of plans for the future to build something around that to maybe bring sim races to the real world but in a proper way and see how far they can reach.”
The Dutchman was disqualified from the event on Saturday with many race fans calling on the Red Bull star to be banned. Philpot continued to defend himself hours later as he suggested Verstappen should be an example to others.
He wrote: “This is my last tweet on this subject, but for all the Max fans defending his retaliation punt because “the other guy hit Max’s team mate first”: You hold your world champion to the same standards of behaviour as a five year old child and that’s really weird.
“Have better heroes. Aspire to be better. Raise the standards you expect from professional sports people. You’re embarrassing. It’s a video game when it suits Max fans. It’s a sport that is important to dedicate weeks of practice and preparation towards when it suits Max fans.” (sic)
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