Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won’t be apologizing for his radio rage during Hungarian Grand Prix
The reigning world champion was caught ranting to his team on the radio about the conduct of some of his opponents. Now, he’s tried to explain himself.
It was a rough ride for Red Bull’s star on Sunday. Whether it was the collision that he had with Mercedes’ former world champion Lewis Hamilton, or his heated rant to his team over the radio, it’s clear the Dutchman was not a happy camper.
Max Verstappen clears the air
If you read our previous report about Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, then you will know that it was eventful, to say the least. There was McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who earned his first Formula 1 win, there was the dramatic crash between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton which didn’t lead to the former’s elimination but was understandably a major contributing factor to his fifth-place finish. Yet, perhaps the moment that caught the most attention was what happened at the start of Sunday’s race when Verstappen was caught ranting to his team on the radio about the near collision between McLaren’s drivers Oscar Piastri - the eventual winner - and Lando Norris.
“OK, so you can just drive people off the track then?” Verstappen shouted. “You can tell the FIA that’s how we’re going to race from now onwards! Just driving people off the road!” Verstappen didn’t stop there either as he later had a go at engineer Gianpietro Lambiase after his closest rivals in the race had all undercut him on pit strategy. “It’s quite impressive how we managed to get undercut. It completely f---ed my race.” That moment was followed by another not too long after when believing his team had botched the race, the 26-year-old took aim at Lambiase once again. “No mate, don’t give me that s--- now. You guys gave me this s--- strategy, O.K.? I’m trying to rescue what’s left.”
As you can probably guess, Verstappen was later asked if he felt he should apologize for his radio messages and in typical fashion, his answer was frank. “I don’t think we need to apologize, I just think we need to do better.” He continued, “I don’t know why people think you cannont be vocal on a radio. This is a sport. If some people don’t like that then stay home.” Tempers aside, Red Bull now finds itself in a tricky situation. As mentioned above, Piastri won, with McLaren teammate Lando Norris finishing second, and his old rival Lewis Hamilton securing the final spot on the podium after escaping their collision unscathed.
To that end, it marks the third race in which the team has not got a win, something that borders on shocking given Verstappen’s dominance in recent years. Where specifics are concerned, he still leads the driver standings with 265 points, while Norris continues to gain ground at an increased pace with 189. As for the constructor standings, the same applies in that Red Bull remains on top with 389 points, but McLaren is now up to 338 and Ferrari right behind with 322. This is all to say that it would probably be a better idea for Verstappen to keep a cool head with the pressure now well and truly on.