Former F1 driver expresses disappointment over Max Verstappen's conduct with Red Bull

Former F1 driver and Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle claimed that he was disappointed with Max Verstappen over his behavior on the team radio during the 2024 Hungarian GP last weekend. The three-time world champion had a frustrating afternoon at the Hungaroring as he couldn't challenge the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris and lost out on P3 to Lewis Hamilton after cooling with his old rival.

The Dutch driver never really looked like himself in the main race. Verstappen did not agree with the steward's call to give the P2 back to Norris, as he believed that he was ahead of the Brit before going off-track. Later on, he vented out his frustration over the team radio after the team's strategy got him undercut by Hamilton, and used some expletives to express his feelings.

As per "PlanetF1", Brundle called himself a 'huge fan of Max Verstappen' but disagreed with the Red Bull driver's conduct and said:

“I’m a huge fan of Max, as I’ve said it many times before, and I said it, I remember on the grid last year somewhere, saying if I was going to choose one of the 20 drivers to go down the pub with it’d be Max. I like him as a driver. I like him as a person."

“But I was disappointed with that, with what he did. I don’t think you can rinse your team like that in public. Close the door, get back, and understand why they were doing what they were doing," he added.

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Max Verstappen gives his take on the McLaren challenge in Belgian GP

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen said that he was wary of the challenge from the McLaren F1 team in the main race on Sunday at the Belgian GP but emphasized the importance of Lap 1 as he starts from P11.

In his post-qualifying press conference, the 26-year-old said:

"Looking at their pace yesterday in the long run, it's incredibly strong. They look very comfortable out there. Of course, they are starting a little bit further back, I think they're so fast they will quite quickly challenge for the front, for the lead," Verstappen said.

"And it also depends a bit, of course, how I get through lap one and stuff. But I would already be happy if we could match that race pace. So starting a bit further back, also being on different tires, I don't know how that is going to work out," he added.

Max Verstappen qualified in P1 for the fourth year running but would start from P11 due to his 10-place grid penalty for taking an extra Internal Combustion Engine for the race from the allotted four this weekend.