Grosjean disagrees with virtual Le Mans criticism

We wrote yesterday that Max Verstappen heavily criticized the organizers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans virtual marathon for technical flaws and said he would no longer participate in such ventures.

But Roman Grosjean, whose R8G Esport team won the virtual Le Mans in the GTE category, disagreed with the two-time world champion’s comments. By the way, the Russian racer Alexander Smolyar played for this team.

“If you have an engine failure or a mechanical failure in real life, isn’t that the same thing? said a former Haas F1 pilot. “Virtual racing is very competitive and it’s great when we see one of the most popular races in the world in a cyber version. I agree, some points can be improved, but the same goes for every other area.”

British racing driver Brad Philpot, who also enjoys e-sports, replied to Grosjean: “If your own computer breaks down, it can be compared to an engine failure. But when the connection to the server drops, it already looks more like a problem with the race management. It’s like there’s a switch built into every car that goes off randomly.”

Ben Costanduros, a British commentator who participated in a virtual marathon, was deeply offended by Verstappen, who called the competition clowning: “If this is clowning, then me and my friends who have put in so much effort are clowns. I usually feel tired after a 24 hour race, but this time we saw the toxic side of esports and social media.

Yes, things didn’t work out as Max expected, he was unlucky to have connection issues, but he wasn’t alone with them… But when a person in such a position of influence addresses others with such strong expressions and in our community creates a negative atmosphere, then such behavior cannot be called wise. It only hurts the world of virtual racing in general.