Max Verstappen set to juggle virtual 24-hour sim race with Imola F1 weekend

Max Verstappen is set to participate in a virtual 24-hour sim race alongside this weekend’s F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

The Dutchman is renowned for his sim racing exploits, often representing Team Redline in various events.

Even though Verstappen is in F1 action this weekend at Imola, he’s been officially listed on Redline’s line-up for the virtual 24-hour Nurburgring race.

Given that endurance events often see drivers rotate throughout the mammoth race, if the times align, Verstappen could compete in both events this weekend.

Verstappen was asked about it when talking to the media at Imola on Thursday.

“It’s not a clash… An endurance race you do with multiple people, right? We’ll see, nothing is fully confirmed yet,” he said.

“We’ll see how it goes. Of course this is the priority, but if I have a bit of free time, who knows?”

Verstappen also revealed that he has a sim rig set up in his motorhome, allowing him to compete.

“I have a full sim rig, yeah. Not the sim rig at home, but I built a new one. It’s important to have a good connection.”

Upgrades at Imola for Red Bull

Like Ferrari, Red Bull are introducing a significant upgrade at Imola.

Red Bull were beaten to victory last time out at Imola by Lando Norris.

While Norris did take the lead because of the Safety Car, he had the fastest race pace out there.

Looking ahead to this weekend, Verstappen admitted that he doesn’t know how competitive Red Bull will be.

“There are more people coming with upgrades - Ferrari for example come here with a big, big upgrade, so at the moment it’s difficult to know where we’re going to be,” he said.

“I mean it’s not responding, these things are already planned out for a long time. It’s not like one team comes with upgrades and we go ‘Oh we need to put something together’, it’s literally already in the pipeline.

“We are happy with it, but naturally you have to keep on pushing, because the teams behind us are definitely catching up - as you could see in Miami when we don’t get things 100% right they are ahead. We have to try and make sure we don’t have too many of those weekends.”