Max Verstappen receives hilarious DRS gift from Red Bull
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen tries to pass the Mercedes of George Russell. Spain May 2022
After his infamous 2022 Spanish GP DRS issues, Max Verstappen has revealed Red Bull gifted him a present created from a can of Red Bull and the broken DRS actuator.
Last season as he cruised to his second World title, winning 15 of the season’s 22 grands prix, it seemed after his early-season retirements that nothing could go wrong for Verstappen.
And then came the Spanish Grand Prix and his DRS issues.
The Dutchman had problems during qualifying that potentially cost him pole position and they returned in the grand prix where he reported his DRS wouldn’t open.
As he tried to chase down George Russell, he raged over the radio: “Where’s the f***ing DRS? Man we can’t even make the f***ing DRS work, unbelievable!”
Told he was actually closing it, he replied: “Because I’m pressing it 50 f***ing times before it opens!”
Despite his troubles he went onto win the grand prix ahead of his team-mate Sergio Perez and Mercedes’ Russell.
Red Bull later gifted him his broken DRS actuator.
“The team gave me a present,” he revealed during a live stream. “It’s a can of Red Bull, it’s machined out of one piece, and the DRS actuator is in there.
“How cool is that?
“And then it says ‘DRS, I have no f***ing DRS’.
“At the back it says, at the time my race wins and career points. It’s really nicely done.
“I thought that was a really nice present.”
Red Bull gave Max a trophy of some kind with the broken DRS actuator inside a RedBull-can after the 2022 Spanish GP 💀pic.twitter.com/90cM70tozE
— Verstappen News (@MV_Updates) May 14, 2023
What is a DRS actuator?
DRS uses an actuator to control the flap in the middle of the car’s rear wing to open it when a driver pushes a steering wheel button as they enter the DRS zone.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner took Verstappen’s rant on the day in stride.
“An angry Max, makes for a very fast Max,” he said.
“He was venting his frustration and there was a little road rage going on at that point which is understandable because he must have hit the button 50 times I think on one straight.”
