17/01/2023
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen hits out at organisers of Virtual Le Mans race as technical issues leave him describing event as a "clown show".
The virtual Le Mans 24-Hour race was the final round of a five-race championship that got underway in September with the Bahrain 8-Hours, with subsequent events at Mona, Spa and Sebring.
With $250,000 in prize money on the table, competitors take the events very seriously.
Sharing the Redline car with Jeffrey Rietveld, Luke Browning and Diogo Pinto, Verstappen got the race off to a perfect start when he took the lead and held on to it until the early hours.
However, a connection issue saw the car back in its garage and once the connection was restored Verstappen had dropped to 17th. Ninety minute later a further connection issue resulted in the two-time world champion quitting in disgust.
"They can't even control their own game," he said of the organisers of the event, which was held on the RFactor2 platform, on 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," he continued, "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.
"Honestly, it's a joke," he fumed. "You cannot call this an event. It's a clown show. That's why it's better to retire the car, because driving around in P15 for six hours makes no sense for everyone.
"It's a disgrace for all the effort we put in as a team. I really hope the organisers really consider where they put this race forward, because on this platform, it's not going to work.
"That's it, game over. I think I have more chance if I go to Vegas and go to the casino, I have more chance to win."
As news of Verstappen's meltdown spread on social media, the Dutchman was reminded of a certain real-life "clown show" in 2021, the Dutchman receiving little sympathy.
As if to rub salt in his wounds, when the race got going again it was won by Redline teammates Felix Rosenqvist, Felipe Drugovich, Luke Bennett and Chris Lulham.
Another participant in the race was Romain Grosjean, who took a far more philosophical approach to the technical issues.
"What about when you have an engine failure or mechanical in real life, isn't is the same," tweeted the Frenchman, who finished tenth in LMP. "Sim racing is super competitive and seeing one of the biggest races in the world being done on sim is awesome. Yes, a few bits and pieces to improve, but isn't that just like everywhere else ?"
"It is clear that there were two major server issues which necessitated red flag stoppages," said Studio 397, the organisation behind the RFactor2 platform. "These were global disconnections caused by a security breach, resulting from the unintentional sharing by race competitors of IP addresses connecting teams to the server.
"We have had 180 competitors taking part on 164 different simulators all around the world, and we appreciate the frustrations of any individual drivers or teams affected.
"A full investigation will be launched at the conclusion of the event, and we will report back on the findings in due course."