Martin Brundle calls out Max Verstappen over temper tantrums – ‘Still on a short fuse’

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Max Verstappen’s temper is ‘still on a short fuse’, according to Martin Brundle, who feels the Red Bull driver has some work to do to control his anger. Verstappen moved above Charles Leclerc to the top of the Drivers’ Championship at the weekend after his win in Barcelona.

It proved to be a testing drive for Verstappen as a spin into the gravel trap at Turn 4 on lap 9 dropped him down to fourth and behind George Russell. The young Brit, driving in a much improved Mercedes, was keeping Verstappen at bay with some strong defence while the reigning F1 world champion had no DRS to make an overtake.

Verstappen pitted after eventually making his move on Russell with Leclerc then forced to retire from the race with a power unit issue. Red Bull then sensed another one-two opportunity and instructed Sergio Perez to allow Verstappen through on lap 49, with the Dutchman going unchallenged at the front for the remainder of the race.

Verstappen was clearly delighted after the race as he stood upon the podium, but he sent a number of frantic radio messages to the pit wall during the Grand Prix. When the DRS was not working, Verstappen went on an expletive rant calling out the team’s engineers.

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He said: “Where is the f****** DRS! You can’t even make a f****** DRS!”

Brundle feels as though Red Bull’s reliability issues this season have played into Verstappen’s anger at several race weekends. And the Sky Sports pundit also believes the 24-year-old hasn’t fully tempered his ‘short fuse’ from earlier in his career.

“Max’s 24th victory, matching the great Fangio, wasn’t his finest, partly due to a malfunctioning DRS rear wing flap, also a trip through the turn 4 gravel when a gust of wind caught him out, and furthermore twice being let through by team-mate Sergio Perez,” Brundle wrote for Sky Sports. “Max was clearly angry on the radio at his team when the DRS wouldn’t work, which was hindering his passing of the ever-impressive Russell in the Mercedes.

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“This tells us two things. He’s rather fed up with a catalogue of reliability issues as the team have taken time to finesse and get their new car up to full speed, and down to the weight limit. Secondly his temper still has a relatively short fuse, as we saw for example in the brake testing of Hamilton in Saudi Arabia last year, which he has otherwise learned to control well in his quest for victories and a first world championship.

“It was fascinating to witness his first proper wheel-to-wheel battle with Russell who was defending robustly but fairly, and very well. I happened across the race stewards on Sunday evening and they were of the same opinion that George was pushing the boundaries but not breaking the rules.

“And his run back past Max between the very short turns one and two will be played out for a good while. Once again Max was very clean and fair in this enduring battle, more so than when he was against Hamilton last year, which is more fitting of a champion. But of course the championship is not up for grabs yet.”

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