Verstappen dismisses critics of “vocal” radio messages and late-night simracing · RaceFans

Max Verstappen defended himself following criticism of his angry radio messages during the Hungarian Grand Prix and suggestions that his simracing the night before affected his performance.

The Red Bull driver clashed several times with race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase in Hungary after the team’s strategy dropped him behind rival cars. Verstappen said his responses were not a “personal attack” and is not concerned if those outside the team disapprove of them.

“Of course I’m frustrated: You want to do the best you can, the team wants to do the best they can and these kind of things, they don’t happen on purpose,” Verstappen told Sky. “But at the time it is very frustrating because you could have extracted a better result out of it.

“Now, I think also many times I have praised the team when they’ve done a good job, and that’s how we operate. When it’s good, it’s good. When it’s bad, it’s bad and it needs to be said.

“Sometimes maybe some people think it’s very harsh, but that’s the way we operate. This is not a personal attack at anyone, because at the end of the day, we are a team, we win and lose together. But I am quite vocal about it, that’s how I operate.

“Some people might not appreciate it outside of the team, some viewers or whatever, but you’re not a part of the team. That’s fine if you don’t, not everyone needs to agree with everything.”

Verstappen fell from third on the grid to finish fifth on Sunday after colliding with Lewis Hamilton. He spent the previous night participating in the iRacing 24 Hours of Spa until around 3am in the morning.

| Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Yesterday Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko said they had “agreed that in future he won’t do simulations so late anymore.” However Verstappen doesn’t believe his simracing had any effect on his performance last weekend and insisted he is best-placed to judge what pre-race activity is “appropriate” for him.

“I’m a three-time world champion, I think I know quite well what I can do and what I cannot do. I’ve been doing that already for eight, nine years, this kind of stuff, and suddenly now because you have one race when things didn’t work out, then these kind of things get brought up by some people, for me, it’s just like any other day. So for me it has nothing to do with that.

“I think I’m professional enough to know when it’s appropriate or not and we move on from that. You just have to focus on what’s at hand now.”

He acknowledged this weekend’s race could be more of a challenge if Red Bull choose to change his power unit, which will incur a penalty.

“We are not the quickest at the moment, we know that,” he said. “We have a few things to figure out in the car.

“And a potential penalty, of course, that we have to take this weekend, which won’t help. We’ll try to optimise everything and try to be better.”

| Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Verstappen’s clashes with Lambiase in Hungary

| Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2024 Belgian Grand Prix

Browse all 2024 Belgian Grand Prix articles