Max Verstappen has told his F1 critics that if they don’t like his radio communications, they can simply “turn down the volume.”
Verstappen’s transmissions came underfire after the Hungarian Grand Prix after lashing out at race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase after a tricky day and bad strategy had left him in fifth place on a self-described “rescue” job.
He would finish fifth after a collision with Lewis Hamilton, and has a history of stern radio communications with Lambiase when events do not going according to plan.
However, Verstappen, who rubbished claims of a Red Bull sim racing ban being imposed on him after Hungary had a direct and blunt suggestion for his critics.
“If people don’t like my language, then don’t listen in and turn the volume down,” Verstappen told media including RacingNews365.
“I am very driven to success and I have proven that already and I always want to optimise stuff.
“Now, people can argue that I might not be so vocal on the radio, but that is their opinion.
“My opinion is that it needs to be said at the time because we are very open-minded and we are very critical to each other as a team.
“That has been working for us very well so I don’t expect that to change. It is important to be critical because in this world that we are living in at the moment, I feel that a lot of people can’t take criticism anymore like it used to be.
“I don’t want to end up like that.”
Radio messages
Verstappen was also pushed on the broadcasting of radio messages in general, but believes unflattering radio traffic being broadcast by FOM is just a part of grand prix racing that must be tolerated.
“That is also a thing because in other sports, people say things but they don’t have mic attached to their mouth,” he said.
“You could argue it with the broadcasting but I don’t care, I will say what I want.
“It is the sport, you are communicating a lot with the pit-wall and have the opportunity to talk, but in other sports, you can swear about stuff that you didn’t like, like a team-mate not passing the ball, you can call him whatever, but there is no mic, so it is just how our sport is.”