Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Hungaroring, 2018

Verstappen “not in the holiday mood” after MGU-K failure

2018 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen says he is not in the holiday mood heading into the summer break after he was forced out of the Hungarian Grand Prix with an MGU-K failure.

The Red Bull driver was running fifth in the early stages before being told to pull off the circuit on only the seventh lap of the race.

Verstappen says the retirement will put a dampener on his holiday spirit heading into the summer break.

“I hate it when people say ‘bad luck, now enjoy your holiday’,” says Verstappen. “I can’t really enjoy the first week because of the end of the last race. I don’t feel like I’m in a holiday mood.”

Echoing criticism of Renault’s power unit reliability by team principal Christian Horner, Verstappen says he is not happy with problems that have affected the team’s engines in recent races.

“I think for both sides – Daniel and me. It’s honestly not at all how it should be,” says Verstappen.

“You pay millions as a team for what you hope is a decent engine, but it keeps breaking down. Besides that, we are also the slowest out there. It’s honestly at the moment difficult to accept.”

An expletive-ridden radio message played over the official broadcast reflected how disgusted Verstappen was at having his race cut short due to engine trouble.

“I was very angry on the radio, I think there was a lot of beeping out there,” Verstappen explains. “Which is a shame – it would’ve been better if they had allowed it. But that’s how it is.

“I’m disappointed, the team are disappointed, the fans are disappointed – you only do five or six laps. We could’ve been easily fifth if nothing happened in front. So it’s again valuable points thrown away.

“Let’s see what we have to do in Spa, whether we have to take penalties or not. I don’t know – but at the moment, I also don’t really care.”

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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23 comments on “Verstappen “not in the holiday mood” after MGU-K failure”

  1. ”I think there was a lot of beeping out there,” ”it would’ve been better if they had allowed it.”
    – I couldn’t’ agree with him, LOL.

  2. I thought that broadcast of the radio transmission was quite silly. If you so not want your viewers to hear those kind of words, why broadcast it, it’s not that we could not figure what he said anyway.

    1. I thought it was brilliant. The broadcasters need to share those moments that are full of emotion – and it doesnt always need to come from Alonso. They also don’t want offensive language being transmitted into viewer’s homes. So we end up with the beeping.

      I’m surprised that more drivers dont swear on the radio when they genuinely get frustrated or angry in the car. They must know that any offensive words will get beeped out.

    2. What an extraordinarily simple minded thing to say. From that radio message we got into the driver’s emotions loud and clear and it was entirely obvious what words he was saying. Instead you just want a quick shot of him pulling over to the side of the road and that’s it?

  3. As I recall this season so far, Verstappen has cost Verstappen and Red Bull Racing more lost points than Renault. At the peak of Verstappens most agressive driving period, this spring, he refused to discuss the issue and didn’t seem willing to look inside for at change off attitude. Luckily he is now staying out of incidents with other drivers, which is very good to see, but trying to create a story of lack of results/points to be Renaults fault only, is maybe a bit ambitious.

    1. The DNF is not what’s frustrating so much, that’s not the story people are making of it now. The lack of power and the lack of reliability on top of that is the story.

      Verstappen, being the agressive an eager racer he is, got himself into trouble earlier trying to make good what was lost on saturday due of that lack of power. Let’s put it this way, working your #ss off all weekend resulting in 5 laps on sunday doesn’t help.

      1. Wait till they have Honda engines next year. Then you’ll hear swearing for real.

    2. @palle Where has Max blamed Renault entirely? Max has owned the mistakes he felt were his, and pointed out which scenarios were racing incidents, and now all he is doing is pointing out the unreliability and the lack of hp that still exists as it did last year for them and that has been plain for all to see. Including for DR.

    3. @palle Verstappen’s mistakes cost RedBull a load of points earlier this year, but not as much as the mechanical failures recently. The last four races: four DNFs (two Daniel, two Max), 50 points or more down the drain. So the drivers are right to feel frustrated about it. Mistakes or not, I’m sure that both Max and Daniel are giving 100% so it must be really frustrating to end up with nothing.

  4. Overrated. Lec would woop this boy twice on Saturday and six times on Sunday.

    #kimiout #Vettelout #Alonso in.

    1. You mean like he tried during all his previous racing career in karting? LOL! :)

      Leclerc is a great talent but Verstappen has always been a step up and still is.

      1. Well so far it is Max who has been promoted higher up in F1 than CL, and at a mere two weeks older than CL, MV has 4 F1 wins. CL has everything to prove yet in F1 and so far Max has proved he can win F1 races in a third place car. Not saying CL isn’t talented as I’m sure he has started to show that in the Sauber, but the proof is in the pudding. Let’s see CL promoted to a top three team first and then let’s see what he can do with that.

    2. Based on Verstappen’s track record in qualifying I wouldn’t make any statements about whooping on Saturday. Verstappen made some costly errors on Sunday, but same can be said about Leclerc. I assume you are not really serious.

  5. I had a very decent reaction on the comment of Jere@. But it seems that his website is even more conservative then US tv. I didn’t use any bad language, only mentioned the comment Max gave in German but even that seems to be too much.

    Is this for real, Keith? Unbelievable.

  6. Oops, placed the link in the wrong story, sorry for that.
    But this is what Max really said: https://streamable.com/ywydo

  7. Gee, I never knew Max spoke French!

    1. Born and raised in Belgium he has learned how to speak Belgian, which is about 50% French.
      And he’s a Monaco resident for quite some time now.

      1. Maybe he knows how to speak Flemish, but when he talks Dutch it is unmistakable Dutch not Flemish. And Flemish is absolutely not 50% French, in the Netherlands we use more French words then the Flemish Belgians, most of them they dislike French.
        But advise for Max: next time swear in Dutch!

        1. Last friday Tom Dumoulin already showed how to with ‘wat een kutzooi’. :)

      2. Max was born and raised in belgian Limburg. Limburg is a region that is situated in both Belgium and the Netherlands. Both Limburgs share the same dialect to a certain degree, they also share how all the other regions in both countries make fun of all Limburg and its inhabitants.

  8. Melchior (@)
    30th July 2018, 9:14

    I’m just wondering what Red Bull’s reliability is like in comparison to Renault’s

  9. Is this a problem of Red Bull’s own making? Renault and McLaren have upgraded to the new and more reliable MGU-K. Red Bull have chosen not to.

  10. I understand Max. It is frustrating when the powerunit fails on you. I guess it is also frustrating to the Redbull crew who are not allowed to do any work on the engine. That is prohibited to renault mechanics.

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