Dubbing the Hungarian GP ‘frustrating’ for Max Verstappen would be an understatement. The Dutchman went ballistic after his team put him on a strategy that left him fending for himself. The fiery radio exchange with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase has kicked off yet another link with Mercedes. Team boss Toto Wolff, however, is wary of counting his chickens.
Speaking after the race, Wolff talked about the team’s sole focus resting on making the car better. They have seen some steady progress that helped them register consecutive wins before the Hungarian GP. Most recently, Hamilton bagged his 200th podium with the same car.
When it comes to Wolff, he also downplayed the Verstappen links with a reference to F2 prodigy Kimi Antonelli. AMuS quoted the Austrian as saying,
“We have to concentrate on our car and our performance and make the driver’s decision when everything has calmed down a bit. I can’t look too far to the left to see what’s happening at Red Bull. We have to concentrate on ourselves – and we have Kimi in Formula 2 and our two drivers in Formula 1.”
AUTO MOTOR UND SPORT [TRANSLATION]
Toto Wolff downplays the fact that the unrest at Red Bull with the angry Max Verstappen on the radio could still encourage the three-time world champion to move to Mercedes.
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— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) July 23, 2024
Coming back to Verstappen, his complaints started right from the moment the lights went out at the race. In a battle with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri into Turn 1, the Dutchman saw himself off the track, which seemingly helped him gain an advantage.
That ‘unfair’ advantage put him into P2 ahead of Norris. Lambiase, however, asked Verstappen to concede his position to avoid a penalty from the FIA which looked inevitable.
Later, a late pit stop saw the reigning champion lose his P3 to Lewis Hamilton, who undercut him. The strategy infuriated Verstappen and led him to take his strategists to the task on the radio for almost the entirety of the race. What further angered Verstappen was a collision with Hamilton that dropped him to P5.
Red Bull must apologize to Verstappen: Peter Windsor
Following the collision with Hamilton, Verstappen rejoined the track but lost another position to Charles Leclerc. While Verstappen vented his frustration on the radio after he collided with the Briton, Lambiase refused to get in touch with the Mercedes engineers on the radio, calling it ‘childish’.
While some believe Lambiase referred to Verstappen being ‘childish’, others feel it was directed at the useless exercise. Peter Windsor, being among the former group, slammed Red Bull for talking to Verstappen in that manner.
On his YouTube livestream, the veteran journalist said, “Childish? I mean who are they talking to? I cannot believe that a Red Bull employee said that to Max Verstappen in the middle of the race. Red Bull should not have been speaking to Max Verstappen like that. They should have been apologizing.”
Amid Red Bull’s failure becoming a hot potato, Helmut Marko has held the strategists responsible for compromising Verstappen’s race. The Red Bull taskmaster sided with the Dutchman and admitted that their strategic blunder led to Hamilton and Leclerc finishing ahead of the championship leader.
