Chris
Despite winning the United States Grand Prix, Max Verstappen cut a frustrated figure and vented his fury about brake issues in a series of expletive-laden team radio snippets.
Verstappen began the race in sixth but powered past his rivals to win in Austin in what was his 50th victory, an incredible feat at just 26 years of age.
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Yet the world champion didn’t have it all his own way and was dealing with braking issues which almost led to Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton overtaking him on the final lap.
Verstappen made sure his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase and team principal Christian Horner knew all about his frustration with the braking issues.
On the 34th lap, Verstappen said: “Mate, these brakes are so s*** compared to yesterday. What a piece of s***.”
Not long after, Verstappen was informed about his pace dropping compared to Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez by Lambiase, only for the Dutchman to fire back: “I know man, my brakes are just s***.”
I talked about his patience earlier on, didn’t I,” Brundle said.
“We call it perhaps one of the greatest Formula One cars of all time.
“And it seems Max has a different terminology for it sometimes.”
Yet Verstappen’s radio blow-ups were not done there.
In the closing stages of the race and with Hamilton hot on his tail, Lambiase continually informed Verstappen about the shrinking gap between the Dutchman and his Mercedes rival.
“Gap, 3.6 (seconds to Hamilton),” Lambiase said.
However, Lambiase made the grave error of giving Verstappen the information while he was in a braking zone.
“No talking in the braking, man, ****,” Verstappen fumed.
Verstappen’s anger left commentator David Croft rather puzzled.
“What is he having to do in the braking that he doesn’t want his race engineer giving him updates for what Lewis Hamilton is doing?” Croft said.
