F1 champion Max Verstappen called the virtual tournament at Le Mans a “clown show” after technical problems forced him to switch off.
24 Hours Of Le Mans Virtual was launched in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of the real Le Mans.
The online tournament, which is held on the rFactor 2 racing simulator, involves racers from all over the world competing remotely, and it is as realistic as possible.
“We treat it like a real live race,” Verstappen told The Washington Post. “We are fine-tuning the car and testing it in the hottest and coldest conditions, in rainy and dry weather, day and night. It takes weeks of preparation, and many people don’t realize it.”
However, the race was not a success for Verstappen, as a series of technical problems caused several red flags and discounts. The F1 champion was in first place when he was kicked off the server, which prompted him to completely withdraw from the competition.
“Look at this. They call it amazing bad luck. It’s just incompetence,” Verstappen said, exiting the game. “They can’t even control their own game. This is the third time this has happened to me, when we are thrown out of the game during this race.”
After the race, 24 Hours Of Le Mans Virtual executive producer Gerard Neveu blamed technical problems on possible DDoS attacks (distributed denial of service).
“During the first seven hours of the race, it became clear that we had serious problems with the server, because of which we twice showed a red flag in the race,” Neveu said in the FAQ. “After some preliminary investigation, it seems that some participants of the race accidentally shared with the public the IP addresses connecting them to the server, which should not have happened.
“This put us in a weakened position, and we faced some security breaches that led to a global shutdown of all competitors. This should never happen if the IP addresses are well protected.”
Suggesting he would not return to the tournament next year, Verstappen said: “What’s the point of that? You have been preparing for five months to try to win this championship, you are leading the championship, you are trying to win this race, which you have been preparing for for two months, and they are coping with it like that. I mean, there were two red flags, they blame it, I don’t even know what, people DDoS the server… Honestly, it’s a joke. You can’t call it an event. It’s a clown show.”
From other gaming news: The first Games Done Quick event in 2023 recently raised more than 2.1 million pounds for the Prevent Cancer Foundation charity.
