World Champion Max Verstappen Labels Le Mans Virtual as a “Clown Show”

Verstappen rage quit 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual after multiple disconnections resulted in several red flags. He would later refer to the event as a “clown show.”

The event brings together 180 drivers from the world of esports and professional driving. In total, 41 countries are represented, and the event takes place on 164 simulators spread out across the globe.

A double World Champion Rattled

When you think of the qualities needed to compete at the highest level of sport, discipline would undoubtedly be among the most important. In formula one, this trait separates the good from the great. That being said, you wouldn’t expect to see the now two-time world champion become rattled. After a very impressive season with Red Bull, the 25-year-old recently won his second world championship, and one can only imagine he is on top of the world right now.

Verstappen has clearly stated this event’s importance to him and his team. He explained that this isn’t a bit of fun for him and that he and his team treat the event like an actual real-life race. What does this entail? Well, according to him, they fine-tune the car’s setup and test it in all weather conditions, night and day. He says that weeks of preparation go into an event like this and that most people don’t realize that.

Red Flags and Technical Issues

Despite looking forward to the event, technical issues ruined the spectacle. A couple of red flags and several disconnections took place from the very beginning. This resulted in the event being stopped for a significant period of time.

When the race did begin, Verstappen found himself leading the pack only to be disconnected again. This appeared to be the final straw for the World champion as he withdrew from the race.

This is what Verstappen had to say during the process of rage quitting.

“Look at this. They call it amazingly bad luck. They can’t even control their own game. This is already the third time this has happened to me now that we get kicked off the game while doing this race.”

The event’s executive producer, Gérard Neveu, claimed a distributed denial of service attack was responsible for the event unfolding the way it did. He claims that it was evident within the first few hours of the race that there were several serval issues. This resulted in the red flag being utilized. According to Neveu, some competitors shared their internet provider services, connecting them to the server. This is likely to have led to the problems that occurred during the event.

While this might explain what happened on the day, only a few people were left satisfied with this answer. The two-time formula one world champion alluded to the fact that he and his team prepared for months for such an event, and he is not interested in hearing such excuses.

Verstappen added this “I think I’m going to uninstall the game. That’s nice. Frees up a bit of space.”

Max Verstappen rage quits Video