A few days after the debacle of the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans, Team Redline is still disappointed. Simracer Jeffrey Rietveld, team mate of Max Verstappen and until this weekend the reigning champion of the online Le Mans, thinks that the organisation and the rFactor2 platform deliberately took too many risks, to the detriment of the drivers. After yet another problem with the game, Team Redline stopped competing last Sunday.

When Rietveld woke up around 9.30am on Sunday morning, he saw a pile of missed calls and apps. The Dutchman immediately realised: 'False alarm'. During his night's sleep - following a long stint in the night hours of the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans - Max Verstappen had pulled the car over for good, after being disconnected from the game for the umpteenth time. Through no fault of his own, leader Team Redline lost several laps. The organisers decided - although technical malaise in France was to blame - not to return the laps.

Not the best for drivers

So by the time Rietveld opened his eyes and actually thought to drive a final stint, the race was long over for Team Redline. " If you look at how everything is handled (by the organisation and platform rFactor2), it doesn't look like they have the best interests of drivers and teams at heart," Rietveld said in conversation with GPblog. "And everyone knows rFactor2 is very difficult when you switch from daylight to night light. Moreover, if you throw rain on the track, it's asking for trouble. That resulted in two red flags, as many competitors crashed out of the game. Rain should never have been there, but they wanted to make it a show for the audience. They didn't think about the riders."

Besides the 2,500 euros of entry fee that was lost, Rietveld was particularly disappointed that so many hours of preparation had been for nothing. There were hundreds of them. "At Le Mans, it's even more than usual. This is the most prestigious race, we already start training at the end of November. During such preparation, you go super many laps to maximise in all areas. We then speak to each other daily and also train together. For example, one focuses on setup, another on driving technique and yet another on strategy."

Admiration

Max Verstappen was also there constantly during the preparation. Rietveld looks with admiration at how the world champion functions in Formula 1. "Max is super-talented by nature and his work ethic is tremendous. He can just keep driving laps until 3am in the night if he thinks he has found an improvement. It's never good enough. Maybe that's the difference with a sim racer. Who is quick to say: 'I've tried everything, I can't get anything more out of it'."

"Max, for his part, with his experience in Formula 1, then still thinks: 'Maybe we can go this route in the setup sometime, because that might be better'. He can dream about a setup at night and try it the next day. We reap the benefits of that. As sim racers, we learn a lot from him. Meanwhile, he is one-of-the-boys. It's always a laugh together, just fun and sociable."