Verstappen made his frustration clear after a team miscalculation saw him abort his final lap in Q3 because he didn’t have enough fuel to complete it and then go back to the pits with the amount required for an FIA monster that is still in the tank.
The team had misjudged how many laps he could do on a track that was drying and getting faster.
He was instructed to enter the pits as he approached the last corner of the lap and replied by repeating “Why? What the fuck?” on the radio.
He had already been told to take it easy on his previous flying lap to create a lead over Pierre Gasly, who was ahead.
The Dutchman stranded in eighth place on the starting grid for Sunday’s race.
When asked by Motorsport.com about his frustration at how rarely his team has let him down, Verstappen made it clear that any criticism can go both ways.
“I know, but I like the critical approach,” he said. “Because if I screw up, they can also tell me that you know I’m making a mistake. And I think it should be the other way around too.
“Because that’s how we keep each other in the right direction, because we want to be perfect, and we don’t want to be good. We want to be perfect.”
When asked if he had told the team what he thought, he said: “I think they know when they saw my face and what I said on the radio.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18, brakes on the brakes and smokes his tires
Photo By: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
Verstappen was adamant that the pit wall should have gotten its sums on the lap count.
“I think we were a little surprised that we had that extra lap of course,” he said. “But you can keep in mind that you see that coming. That’s why I don’t really understand how that was missed.
“And, in hindsight, they should have let me finish the lap earlier where they told me to abort already to make a gap for the last lap. All this was of course also triggered a bit with Pierre in front of me.
“So that’s why I had to make a gap for that last lap, because I got close to him. But that’s no excuse. I can’t see how much fuel is in the car. But we have all the sensors in the world to track this sort of thing.
“So yeah, incredibly frustrating because I think we had a good car. And I think you could already see that in Q3 from mistakes. The car was really good. The conditions are difficult, but I like that. The car also worked very well.”
Verstappen was adamant that his penultimate lap, cut short when told to make a gap to Gasly, would have been quick.
“It was already over two seconds to my fastest in Q3. I mean, even in the lap I did, I had a big moment in the last sector. And I was two seconds ahead, I think, before I even got to these two corners.
“That was a big one. That could also have been right in the wall! But we made it.
“Normally, if you had enough fuel in the car, that last lap would have been faster. I didn’t realize I didn’t have enough fuel in the car, otherwise I would have just gone for it.
“It was good, it would have been pole for sure. Because like I said, my 1m51.3s or whatever I was doing, I had a really big slide in that last chicane before the last corner. So there was a lot in it.”
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