"Good morning keyboard warriors!": Mercedes DTM racer seemingly calls out Max Verstappen fans after backlash from Dutch driver
Mercedes DTM racer Maro Engel cheekily called out Max Verstappen fans after facing backlash from the latter for his comments. The Dutch driver surprised everyone when he made a one-off appearance testing a DTM car at the iconic Nordschleife ahead of the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The reigning four-time F1 world champion has been busy over the last couple of weeks, both on and off the track. In addition to his racing commitments for Red Bull in F1, he became a father for the first time earlier in the month.
However, Verstappen shocked everyone when he tested Emil Frey Racing's Ferrari 296 GT3 at the track, 'The Green Hell'. The Dutchman initially tried to go unnoticed by using a pseudonym of 'Franz Hermann' but was unsuccessful in his attempts.
Max Verstappen caught some flak from DTM racer Maro Engel when the latter tweeted about the former using a lighter weight, high on power and low ride height car to break the lap record at Nordschleife.
However, the Red Bull driver quickly shut down any such claims, and even the German admitted that the rumor was false.
Engel's tweets caught the ire of the Dutch fans, who called him out for the same. The 39-year-old, however, in his recent tweet on X, poked fun at the Dutch fans and wrote:
"Good morning keyboard warriors! Wishing you a great day."
Max Verstappen broke the record at the iconic German track by a couple of seconds, but claimed he was not at the track for that purpose.
Max Verstappen weighs in on driving at the Nordschleife
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen stated that although he was not a stranger to the track due to his sim racing exploits, he had never driven at it in real life.
Speaking with F1.com, the 27-year-old spoke about the experience and said:
"I've never driven there in real life, not even with a road car. Of course, I did spend a lot of time on the simulator doing thousands of laps, so that helped. When I got out there a few barriers were different, maybe a few kerbs were a little bit different, but I know the track layout well. It's just getting used to the grip level of the car, the conditions, the new tarmac in places.
"At the same time, I was there with my sim driver, that now turned into a real driver. Even for him also to get up to speed there, because eventually we all want to do that race as a team. It was a very good day, we got lucky with the weather as well – it was nice and sunny. It was fantastic!"
Max Verstappen returned to an F1 track, as he will compete at another iconic track in Imola in his bid to win a fourth successive time in the 2025 edition.