Red Bull Racing driver
Max Verstappen jibed at the stewards following the drama-packed 2024
Hungarian Grand Prix race.
Max Verstappen finished the 13th round of the 2024 season at
Hungaroring in P5 after starting from third place on the grid.
This, of course, is a result that the triple World Champion wasn't satisfied with at all, especially after everything that happened during the race.
There were a couple of critical moments and decisions/ indecisions from stewards that made this weekend tough to swallow for the
26-year-old Red Bull Racing F1 driver.
As a result, when the Dutch driver was told after the race that doctors were waiting for him in a parc fermé, he couldn't help but respond with a salty jibe at the stewards. Here is the communication between him and his engineer:
"I hear that the medical delegate has to look at you and examine you in the parc fermé."
- Gianpiero Lambiase- Verstappen's engineer
"We can send the medical delegate to the steward's team, and they can have a look. See if they are all okay."
- Max Verstappen
All the incidents that took place:
The first incident occurred on the opening lap of the race when Verstappen felt he was pushed wide by
Lando Norris in the first corner. The Dutchman went off the track and overtook the
McLaren driver.
Stewards launched an investigation into the incident, but after Red Bull advised Verstappen to return to the position, which he did (however, wasn't happy about), the investigation was concluded.
Verstappen then stayed out on the track for too long and got undercut by
Lewis Hamilton, with whom the second incident took place.
The Red Bull Racing driver got stuck behind the seven-time World Champion for many laps, and when he finally felt he could overtake into turn number two, he felt like Hamilton pushed him wide.
He complained on the radio, but his own engineer told the Dutchman that he was behind at the apex, which meant the
Mercedes driver wasn't at fault.
Verstappen clearly had a much better pace than Hamilton and perhaps could have competed with McLarens for the victory, but he lost too much time.
At this point, he felt that not only the stewards were against him, but his own team was also annoying him, and his car also didn't work as he wanted it to.
In the meantime, there were a couple of salty exchanges between him and his engineer, and the tension was building up, but the biggest moment came on lap 63.
The triple World Champ sent a divebomb on Lewis Hamilton, and the two made contact close to the apex, sending the back of Verstappen's car flying in the air.
The Dutchman said he locked up because the 39-year-old was moving under braking. However, at that point, he didn't find support even from his engineer on the team radio.
He lost two positions as a result, but by some miracle, he was able to at least bring the car home without significant damage. Nevertheless, he wasn't happy with anything that happened and felt the stewards were against him, which resulted in the jibe mentioned above.