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Max Verstappen was publicly rebuked by his own engineers after blaming Red Bull’s strategy for finishing fifth at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday. The drivers’ championship leader and three-time world champion collided with Hamilton on lap 63 of the 70-lap race. Verstappen, 26, then protested on the team radio that his race engineer told him not to be “childish”. The Dutch driver was summoned to the stewards’ office to explain his role in the incident, but officials took no further action.
Verstappen railed against his car, strategy and the accident in a series of radio messages, many of which included profanity, with most observers quick to say the accident was his fault.
When Verstappen accused Hamilton of entering his “braking zone” and causing the collision, his normally mild-mannered engineer Giampiero Lambiase responded with a firm tone.
“I don’t even want to get into radio battles with other teams, Max,” he said.
“We’ll let the stewards do their job. It’s childish, childish to say that on the radio.”
Verstappen defended his actions.
“I don’t know why people think you can’t express yourself on the radio,” he said.
“This is a sport and if someone doesn’t like it, then stay home,” he added.
“Racing incident”
The move follows a string of high-profile incidents for Verstappen that have shown how he and Red Bull are struggling to cope with the pressure as McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari chip away at their performance and points lead.
Oscar Piastri won the race over McLaren teammate Lando Norris, with Hamilton third, while Verstappen and Red Bull Racing are winless in three races and have just three wins in their last eight.
Verstappen showed defiance after he collided with Hamilton while trying to launch his car from the inside at Turn 1 and was subsequently thrown off the track.
“I made a move to accelerate full speed, but when I was in the middle of the braking zone and had made up my mind, he kept twisting to the right,” he said.
“If I hadn’t turned while braking while going straight, I would have collided with him.”
Hamilton smiled when told of Verstappen’s explanation after the race.
“Ultimately, I think he was quicker. I moved a little bit to defend and left enough space on the inside, he locked on and then obviously couldn’t turn.
“So he was travelling in a different trajectory and he hit my wheel.
“I saw him coming from far away and he braked much later than I did, but he still managed to drive to the inside.
He added: “I stayed still and he hit the wheel and flipped over, so I think it was a racing accident.”
Verstappen’s lead was reduced to 76 points by Norris.
His Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez finished seventh after starting 16th. 24 hours earlier, team principal Christian Horner had harshly criticised him for his fourth Q1 exit in seven qualifying sessions, adding that “you can’t win a race on one leg”.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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