Verstappen's Engineers' Reaction To Hungary Rants Revealed By Chandhok

Thursday, 01 August 2024 at 16:00

Former F1 driver and Sky Sports pundit Karun Chandhok revealed what he learned from a conversation with Max Versatppen's engineers after the tense Grand Prix in Hungary.

The 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix was a tough race for Red Bull, especially for Max Verstappen's side of the garage. It doesn't happen too often, but the Austrian team chose a bad strategy for their driver, which meant he got stuck behind Lewis Hamilton.

The 26-year-old is known for being short-fused, and he let his team know very quickly how upset he was about the mistake with overly aggressive radio messages.

The Dutchman shouted at his own engineer, who then returned the favor and got a bit salty as well. Overall, it was a very tense situation that didn't benefit the team in the end.

It went so far that the 1996 Champion Damon Hill suggested after the race that Max Verstappen should apologize to Gianpiero Lambiase (his engineer.)

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On the other hand, when Karun Chandhok spoke to the triple World Champion's engineers a week later, he found out the team didn't view it so dramatically at all.

In fact, the engineers suggested they view it positively when Verstappen sets a high bar and pushes everyone within the team to excel. He wrote in a column for Intercooler magazine:

"It was a fascinating insight into the perfectionist that Max is. A week later in Spa, I spoke with the engineers and strategists on the receiving end of the rant and they said they're all used to Max setting a high bar for himself and expecting the same from everyone around him."

"When they don't meet his standards, he's not happy and he makes it known. His team told me they viewed his passion for winning as a plus as it drives them all to be better."