This week the F1 commission met in London with a number of topics on there agenda. First up a suggested change to the points system which would award points down to P12, was rejected.
The topic of how to get young drivers more involved in Formula One was also tacked without much progress. The idea of wild card weekends where a junior driver replaces one who is full time for an entire weekend once a year was deemed impractical.
Also the topic of expletives reared its head following the radio messages from Max Verstappen (MV) to his engineer Gianpiero Liambiase (GL) during the Hungarian Grand Prix. The world champion’s fury began in the opening lap when he was told by the team to hand second place back to Lando Norris as the stewards were investigating him for “leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage.”
Verstappen bad temper begins
GL: “Max, the incident is under investigation. I think our recommendation is you let this go, we can talk about it later. So if you let Lando past down to Turn 1.”
MV: “Why couldn’t they not just say what they think and then we decide? F***
MV: “OK, so you can just drive people off the track then? Then, you can tell the FIA that’s how we’re gonna race from now onwards – just driving people off the road.”
By lap 36, Max was challenging for P3 behind Lewis Hamilton who had performed the undercut at the first round of pit stops. A bold attempt around the outside of turn two failed as Verstappen ran wide onto the marbles allowing Lewis back through.
Verstappen calls for “respect” from engineer
RB20 setup compromised
The understeer in Verstappen’s car clearly surprised the world champion and he made his feelings clear over the radio.
MV: “I’m minus five brake bias and the thing just doesn’t f**king turn. It’s unbelievable.”
GL: “Mode 9, or press and hold the overtake -”
MV: “- Why? Why Mode 9, it’s s**t.”
F1 team “on the brink of collapse”
Max slags off team strategy
Realising it was going to be tough to pass Hamilton following the undercut on lap 42 Max had this to say to the team.
MV: “It’s quite impressive how we let ourselves get undercut and just completely f**ked my race.”
Having pitted again on lap 49 for fresh mediums, Verstappen realised Mercedes had uncut him again with an earlier stop for Hamilton. Max went hell for leather on his new tyres from the get go, only for his engineer to reprimand for failing to manage the tyres properly.
GP: “Well, that’s some gentle introduction.”
MV: “No mate, don’t give me that bulls**t now. You guys gave me this f**king strategy, OK? I’m trying to rescue what’s left. For f**k’s sake.”
Rookies in Sprint rasces considred
Verstappen rude response to journalists
As the laps wound down Verstappen attempted one last manoeuvre on Lewis. The pair collided and Max began the usual trial by radio in an attempt to influence the FIA stewards. GP then told him to let the “stewards do their thing” and called out Verstappen’s efforts as “childish.”
When asked after the race whether his criticism of the team and radio messages had gone too far, Verstappen bluntly said of his critics: “They can all f**k off,” before he swiftly left the media pen where the drivers are interviewed.
Ever the opportunist, Lewis Hamilton waded in with his opinion on Verstappen’s behaviour. “You have to be a team leader, a team member,” he said. “Maybe not so much a team leader but more so just always remember you are a team-mate with lots of people and you have to act like a world champion.”
Now a report in The Times reports the FIA have sided with Hamilton’s point of view as team bosses are told to address the issue of foul language with their drivers. At a meeting of the F1 commission this week, Stefano Domenicali also reminded the teams that rain communication is broadcast live during track sessions.
Hulkenberg addresses “instability” at Audi
FIA fail to sanction Verstapen
Yet F1’s governing body appears to have stopped short of the action they took at last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix when both Toto Wolff and Are Vasseur were given official warnings after swearing at an official FIA press conference.
When asked this weekend whether he would modify his behaviour as suggested by the FIA, Verstappen was defiant. He said, “People that don’t like my language don’t have to listen to it. Turn the volume down. I am very driven to success. I think I’ve proven that already.
“People can argue that you might not be so vocal on the radio but that’s their opinion. My opinion is that it needs to be said at the time to maybe also try and force the second pitstop [earlier]. [That] would have been a bit different. That’s how it goes.”
Red Bull ‘financial deficit’ should they sack Perez
10 place grid drop for Max
Verstappen heads into the Belgium Grand Prix having won the last three times in Spa Francorchamps. In 2022 after suffering penalties for new power unit components, he started from the back of the grid but won the race by over 18 seconds.
Again in 2023, Max faced more power unit grid drop penalties. But started the race for P6 this time. By lap nine, Verstappen had taken the lead and went on to take the victory in true runaway style.
The word ahead of this weekend in Belgium is that Verstappen will be taking a ten place grid drop for fitting one more internal combustion engine than allow by the FIA for the season. His best hop[e is to start in P11 but as recent races in Silverstone and Budapest have proven, the RB20 is not invincible coming through the field as were its last two predecessors.
Wolff reminds Hamilton team orders must be obeyed
The 2024 Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix will be remembered less for the racing and more by the drama on team radio. Max Verstappen bitched at his engineer from the moment he was forced to hand back P2 to Lando Norris in the opening laps.
Verstappen called the team’s strategy “shit” and blamed the team for “fucking up my race.” Then following a collision late in the race with Lewis Hamilton the world champion was trying to influence race control with his radio messages but was curtly told by his engineer this was “childish.”
Yet Red Bull and Verstappen were not the only team having radio drama’s, McLaren painfully suffered for their strategy error which saw them pit Lando Norris at the final stop before his team mate. The reason given at the time was to cover off the undercut from Mercedes with Hamilton… READ MORE
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Where MV is concerned, I, personally, am not surprised at his behaviour nor his language. His father is a short tempered, selfish thug and the apple does not fall far from the tree. I think MV is a spoilt brat and he shows it whenever he doesn’t get his own way. Saying he has proved his success makes me put my fingers down my throat. The taste of Micheal Masi must be the initial cause but since that debacle MV has shown what a real loser he is. Anyone of the other 19 F1 drivers have more decorum in their little fingers than MV has in his whole body. Regarding putting a rookie into a F1 race as a wildcard, this sounds good. Mr Bearman did just that at short notice for Carlos Sainz. It was proactical then, why not again?