Max Verstappen spoke about his critics after the 2024 Hungarian GP, wishing they would “f**k off” with their thoughts on his on track behaviour.
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Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had two words to say to critics of his 2024 Hungarian GP actions: “f**k off.”
The 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix was one drivers and audiences alike will remember, and perhaps not for the best of reasons. While McLaren had their own issues with their 1-2 placing and Alpine had a driver retire, all eyes were also on Max Verstappen. He was displeased with the strategy of his team and an incident he feels Lewis Hamilton was at fault for.
Verstappen started P3 and realised early on that he did not have the pace to catch up to McLaren’s 1-2. On the final stint he had dropped to P5 and felt P3 was the endgame on his fresher tyres. To get there, he had to get by Charles Leclerc and Hamilton. However, after he got past Leclerc, he tangled with Hamilton at Turn 1 with eight laps to go. He dropped back down to P5, where he finished, with Hamilton rounding off the podium.
He was placed under investigation by the FIA stewards for the clash but no further action was taken for the racing incident for either the Dutchman or the Briton.
“They can all f**k off.”
This came after his collision with Lando Norris at the Austrian GP last month, that saw Norris DNF and Russell win. He also came under fire for that, much like today’s collision. When asked about critics saying he went too far and disrespected his team over his team radio he replied, “They can all f**k off.”
“I got a lot of shit thrown at me in Austria with people saying moving under braking, blah blah blah,” he said. “I am positioning my car on the initial movement and then I keep it straight.“
“Today, under braking he just kept turning to the right and that is why I also locked up because I was going for the move, but I saw the car on the outside kept coming at me. Otherwise, we would’ve already crashed before. I had to stop the car so that is why I locked up.”
Strategy Mishaps
He also explained his criticism of Red Bull’s strategy after the race. He fought back with the team over the radio throughout the course of the race. At one point his race engineer called his behaviour on the radio “childish.”
He believes that while “We didn’t have the pace to fight McLaren today but then I think we could have still had a P3.
“The wrong strategy calls put me on the backfoot where I constantly had to fight people, trying to overtake, and it didn’t work today.
“The track is really hot and as soon as you get close to cars the tyres overheat and basically all of the advantage that you have with the tyres is not working anymore.”
After a disastrous Qualifying session for the team on Saturday, many wondered if the Austrian team had what it took to salvage their weekend in today’s race. One thing is clear: despite the P5 and P7 finish for their drivers, they may be worse off now than before.
Image Credit: Red Bull Content Pool
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