Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has confirmed he will hold closed-door talks with Max Verstappen over his criticism of the team and his colourful language during a stormy Hungarian Grand Prix.
The three-time F1 champion often expressed his frustration during the 70-lap race at the Hungaroring, be it with the car, the situations on track and especially the team’s strategy, leading to occasionally tense exchanges with engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
When the chequered flag came, Verstappen crossed the line in fifth place after a collision on lap 63 with his old rival Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes as they battled for third position.
Remarkably, the Dutch driver’s RB20 survived a heavy impact on landing after the rear end was thrown into the air, and although he was investigated for “causing a collision”, the stewards chose not to take any action as neither driver was “wholly or predominantly at fault”.
As he stepped out of the car after the race, and before seeing the stewards, Verstappen continued to pull no punches, again criticising his team, while telling all critics to “f*** off” for such criticism.
“Max was frustrated, which is understandable,” Horner explained when asked if Verstappen had overstepped his mark with his radio comments.
“He has a very direct line of communication with his engineer (Lambiase). That’s something they will discuss between the two of them.”
Horner defends Verstappen’s engineer
Horner was pressed further on the matter, with Verstappen’s comments coming after Saturday’s qualifying, where he said people within the team were not pulling in the same direction and others could not see the problems within the team.
Asked if Verstappen had gone too far in defending his team, Horner said: “Everyone sees that we need to find more performance and everyone is working hard to achieve that.
“We will have any discussions behind closed doors.”
Horner also defended Lambiase, having at one point appeared to describe the 26-year-old as “childish” when Verstappen was again criticising the Hamilton incident.
“At that stage GP wasn’t referring to Max, they were referring to other[Mercedes]drivers complaining on the radio about a penalty,” Horner said. “So I don’t think GP was referring to Max at that stage.
“Others are obviously calling for penalties, because the stewards are also listening to the radio.
“Look, they’ve been together for eight years and… yes, there are things we could have done better in the race, but it’s something we’ll talk about as a team.”