Max Verstappen ‘skipped Red Bull team meeting’ at Singapore GP

Max Verstappen makes subtle dig at Lewis Hamilton in April

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Max Verstappen left the track angry and missed the Red Bull debrief after a mistake from the team at the Singapore Grand Prix. According to the Dutch newspaper, de Telegraaf, Verstappen didn’t feature in the meeting on Saturday night.

It came hours after Red Bull’s error to under-fuel the Dutchman resulted in him being unable to complete his final run. The lap would have likely been good enough for pole but instead he was forced to start P8.

Speaking about his decision to ditch the meeting, he told de Telegraaf: “It’s not that I wanted to make a statement by leaving, that’s not the point. But that’s just what I felt at that moment. There’s no point in talking then”

His bad qualifying result ultimately led to the issues which plagued the Red Bull star on Sunday. The reigning champion struggled to get through the field and locked up when trying to pass Lando Norris for P4.

This dropped him outside the points but he did battle back to P7 after late overtakes on Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. However, Verstappen continued to blame Red Bull’s error on the qualifying issue after the race.

He added: “It’s not where we want to be. It all starts from yesterday. You put yourself in a spot like that and it can either work brilliantly, you can drive back to the front, or be very frustrating like we had. P7) is better than eighth but it’s not what I’m here for. With a car like that and what we showed in practice. It’s just incredibly messy.”

Verstappen repeatedly swore at his mechanics over team radio after they told the Red Bull star to pit in qualifying.

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But, the Dutchman defended his language after the session, claiming the aggressive tone helps to keep the team focussed. More crucially, the 25-year-old also admitted that Red Bull regularly tell him off for making mistakes.

He said swearing at his engineers helps make sure the relationship stays fair when errors are made. He explained: “I like the critical approach because when I f**k up, they tell me that I make a mistake and I think it should be the other way around as well.

“That is how we keep each other in the right direction. We want to be perfect. We don’t want to be good, we want to be perfect.”

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