“F**k off”: Max Verstappen responds to critics after tense moment with race engineer in Hungarian GP

Max Verstappen had a blunt response, trashing criticism over his heated radio conversation with engineer Gianpiero Lambiase during the 2024 Hungarian GP. Speaking to the media, including Sportskeeda, after the race, the Red Bull world champion disagreed with the suggestion that the radio conversation was tense and heated.

Frustrated with the lack of pace and poor strategy executed by Red Bull, Max Verstappen was heard lashing out at Lambiase over the radio. Initially, his frustration stemmed from the tire strategy. However, the venting continued over the steward's decision to give a place back to Lando Norris and the incident with Lewis Hamilton. Responding to criticism about the heated radio exchanges, the Dutchman had a short and blunt response. The duo has a history of such heated conversations, though not all the exchanges get broadcast on television.

When questioned about those who were critical of the heated conversation, Max Verstappen said,

“Yeah. They can just f**k off.”

When asked if there had ever been such tension on the radio with Lambiase, he said,

“I’ve had it before.”

When asked if the latest exchange was worse than usual, he replied by saying,

“I wouldn’t agree with that. I was just annoyed of course with today and maybe the team at the time didn’t realise what they did wrong. Or maybe they didn’t see it was so severe. But of course in the car you have a lot of different feelings.”

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Max Verstappen had heated exchanges over the radio with his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase

In a frustrating race in the Hungarian heat, Max Verstappen had several fiery radio conversations with his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. The duo has often had feisty chatter over the radio, but the latest one seemed like an escalation.

At the start of the race, when Verstappen had to give second place back to Lando Norris for retaining it despite running wide at the start, the Dutchman was unhappy and felt the FIA should let drivers run each other off the road henceforth.

Max Verstappen criticized the strategy in a furious radio conversation with Lambiase following the first pit stop. Twice during the race, he was given a strategy that caused him to drift away from the McLarens and fall victim to Lewis Hamilton.

When asked to give a place back to Norris, Max Verstappen said:

“Why couldn't they just say [the stewards] what they think, and then we decide?”

He added:

“Ok, so you can just run people off the track? You can tell the FIA that's something we can do from now onwards ... just driving people off the road.”

Regarding the Lewis Hamilton incident, the Dutchman ranted by saying,

“Yeah I moved out of braking.”

Here's what Lambiase said in response on one of the occasions:

“I’m not even going to get into a radio fight with the other teams, Max. We’ll let the stewards do their thing. It's childish on the radio, childish.”

Following the first pit stop, Lambiase taunted the Dutchman for how he was using the tires:

“Well that's some gentle introduction"

Verstappen responded by saying,

“No mate, Don’t give me that bull s**t, you guys gave me this s**t strategy, Ok. I’m trying to rescue what’s left.”

With the McLaren drivers locking out the front row in qualifying, Max Verstappen was aware of the tough race that lay ahead. His team's strategy, which lacked speed, added to his misery. On course to clinch third place, his frustration led to a racing incident with Hamilton where he locked up and got tagged by the Mercedes, sending him airborne and down into fifth place.

With his latest race result, his lead in the driver's championship is down from 84 points to 76 points. In the contractors championship, Red Bull’s 71-point lead over Ferrari is now down to 51 points over McLaren.