Martin Brundle warns Max Verstappen over ‘legacy’ with poor Red Bull team treatment

Former F1 driver turned pundit Martin Brundle wishes that Max Verstappen would treat his Red Bull team better to make sporting success the foundations of his “legacy”.

The Hungarian Grand Prix proved a frustrating race for Verstappen on several counts, not only due to his late collision with Lewis Hamilton as they battled for the final podium position, but also in regards to his dismay over Red Bull’s strategy.

Martin Brundle’s Max Verstappen ‘legacy’ warning

Undercut by Hamilton at the first round of pit stops, that marked the true escalation of Verstappen’s team radio tirade, which had started with his anger over being told to give back P2 to Lando Norris after the start and concluded with his reaction to that Hamilton shunt. By this point, his long-serving race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase had had enough.

And considering Verstappen has a golden opportunity to secure his fourth World Championship in a row this season, Brundle wishes that Verstappen would be kinder towards the Red Bull team and not place such an asterisk on his “legacy”.

“Max furiously thought his team called him in much too late because he lost track position to Hamilton,” Brundle wrote in his Sky Sports column.

“Cue much angst and beeping required for Max’s radio calls as he berated his long-suffering engineer and friend Gianpiero Lambiase, and the team who’ve given him every one of his race victories and three, probably soon-to-be four, World Championships.

“I always say that you can’t cherry-pick the bits you like about world-class sports people, they come as a package which adds up to their success. I’m such a fan of Max as a driver and a person, in awe of his talent, but I wish he didn’t treat the team like that.

“His legacy should be more sporting, but we now know the two words, consisting of only seven letters, he would reply to that statement.”

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The reply Brundle referred to was Verstappen’s “f*** off” message for any critics of how he acted over the radio.

“They can all f**k off,” was Verstappen’s blunt response.

“I mean, of course, I’m annoyed but I’ve been annoyed before – sometimes you press in the radio to voice your opinion and that’s what I did today hoping that, maybe, the second pit-stop will be a better call.

“But it wasn’t. But, for me, that is not distracting when I’m driving. Of course, I’m annoyed but you also then focus back on what you have to do and that’s, of course, controlling the car.”

Verstappen ultimately finished P5 in Hungary as McLaren’s Lando Norris – the P2 finisher – reduced Verstappen’s Drivers’ Championship lead to 76 points.

Read next – Revealed: Every word exchanged between furious Max Verstappen and Gianpiero Lambiase