Red Bull has clarified that Max Verstappen’s race engineer was not branding him “childish” when he used that term over the radio in Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Verstappen cut a disgruntled individual throughout the race at the Hungaroring as he made several complaints about his car balance and Red Bull’s strategic choices.
The Dutchman, who bemoaned understeer on his RB20, was angered when Red Bull elected to enable both Lewis Hamilton and later Charles Leclerc to undercut him.
“It’s quite impressive how we let ourselves get undercut”, Verstappen remarked at one stage, with Red Bull boss Christian Horner admitting the team made a mistake.
But while his radio tirade continued as he clashed with Hamilton later on and trailed home fifth, Verstappen expressed that he saw no reason to retract his comments.
Horner has claimed that he harbours no concerns about Verstappen’s agitated radio exchanges with Gianpiero Lambiase, who has been his race engineer since 2016.
“Max was frustrated,” Horner said. “Which you can understand, he has a very direct line of communication with his engineer.
“That’s something that they’ll discuss between the two of them.”
Verstappen’s agitation built up to the stage where he ended up sustaining damage as a late lunge down Hamilton’s inside at Turn 1 on Lap 63 saw his car go airborne.
The collision would see Verstappen lose the place he had gained on Leclerc and led to him complaining that Hamilton moving under braking had instigated the touch.
But unlike in Austria when Lambiase sided with his driver over an incident with Lando Norris, Verstappen’s engineer told him not to discuss the clash across the radio.
“I’m not even going to get into a radio fight with the other teams, Max,” Lambiase, 43, advised. “We’ll let the stewards do their thing. It’s childish on the radio, childish.”
Some perceived Lambiase’s comments to be targeted at Verstappen’s behaviour, but Horner is certain that the dialogue concerned a potential protest from Mercedes.
“I think GP at that point wasn’t referring to Max, he was referring to others on the radio complaining about penalties,” Horner commented.
“So I don’t think GP at that point was in reference to Max.
“Others are obviously goading for penalties, because obviously the stewards are listening to the radio as well.
“They’ve been together for eight years and yeah there’s things that we could have done better in the race today, but it’s something that we’ll talk about as a team.”
Verstappen’s exasperation has been traced back to his participation in a sim race at Spa-Francorchamps at 3 am, but Horner has denied the matters could be related.
“I think people draw conclusions,” Horner added.
“Max knows what’s required, he knows what it takes to drive a grand prix car and to win grands prix and be a World Champion.
“As a team, we always work as a team, and what discussions are had will always not take place through the media.”
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