Max Verstappen is fuming. He was supposed to end his ‘winless’ streak in Budapest. However, the most dramatic turn of events left the world champion in P5. He aimed to capitalize on the brand-new upgrades. Unfortunately, the opposite happened, thus risking his place on the driver’s table. Moreover, Verstappen’s outrage over the team radio is the talk of the town. As he reported his frustration to the team, his choice of words seemed to have put off the audience.

Verstappen was irritated since the beginning. After the first lap, he had to let Lando Norris go ahead to P2. This somewhat triggered the ‘angry cells’ in Max. Following this incident, every time Red Bull‘s radio blared, it was mostly screaming and cuss words. The 26-year-old lost his temper more when he and Lewis Hamilton collided on the 63rd lap. What was the aftermath?

An unapologetic Max Verstappen sends a bold message to his critics

Max Verstappen has a message for his critics. “They can all f**k off,” retorted the Dutchman at the end of the race. Explaining the incident that pushed him further away from winning at the Hungaroring, he said: “I got a lot of s**t thrown at me in Austria with people saying moving under braking. I am positioning my car on the initial movement and then I keep it straight.”

“Today, under braking, he (Hamilton) 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,” the Dutchman added.

The media further asked him if he would apologize for the radio messages. Verstappen replied: “Why is that? I don’t….we need to apologize, we just need to do a better job. I don’t know why people think you cannot be vocal over the radio. This is a sport. If you don’t like it, stay home.” This shows Max won’t be apologizing to his team. His messages, although bouts of frustration, were his true emotions. And given this reason, the 3x champ wouldn’t say sorry. While a few fans have welcomed this straightforward attitude, others have called it stubborn.

The Hamilton-Verstappen incident has divided the F1 community. Some are blaming Lewis for going ‘overboard’ with his position defending, while others are pointing fingers at Verstappen for his desperation for a podium. So whose fault was it?

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen locked up in lap 63

With just seven laps remaining, Mercedes No.1 Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen collided. The duo was battling for the podium; Hamilton’s front wheel grazed the Dutchman and sent the back of his vehicle into the air. This incident took Verstappen down to P5 from where he couldn’t recover. Red Bull’s star driver ended his Hungarian GP with frustration and disappointment. Not just the car, but their strategies also failed during the race. And to make things worse, Red Bull’s slow pit stops became the ‘game changer’.

Astonishingly, nothing seemed to have worked for Max Verstappen. Budapest was a nightmare. Even his engineer GP Lambiase didn’t support him when he accused Lewis Hamilton of moving into his ‘braking zone’. Verstappen’s appeal was called “Childish”. Lambiase’s alleged betrayal made the situation more difficult. At the end of the day, the 26-year-old had to settle down with only 10 points.

The outcome of the race was beyond Red Bull’s expectations. Such strategic failure and desperation to go back to the top shows that the team is indeed struggling to keep up. Losing the ‘dominant’ tag now, Max Verstappen’s title is under threat. McLaren has the fastest cars on the track and Mercedes is picking up pace. Max must win the next few races to maintain the lead or else he could be dethroned any time.

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