Max Verstappen delivers furious ‘unacceptable’ outburst as Red Bull issues persist in Brazil

Max Verstappen delivered one of the best radio messages during Friday’s second practice in Brazil, but it was anything but a laughing matter as the Red Bull driver again suffered from downshift issues.

The Dutchman was third quickest in both of Friday’s sessions but brought his day to an early end, returning to the pits with six minutes remaining in FP2.

Max Verstappen frustrated by Red Bull downshift problems

Not for the first time this season, Verstappen complained about downshift issues during practice.

“Unacceptable man! Unacceptable, these downshifts. What the f***!” the four-time world champion told his race engineer Tom Hart.

He finished FP1 0.236s behind pace-setter Lando Norris.

It was more of the same during the day’s second practice, where he was again just over two-tenths off the pace set by Kimi Antonelli.

“So we have nothing on the switch, but they are adapting to you,” Hart told his driver.

Verstappen said: “What does that mean? I have to speak to the engine myself?”

Told “they should be getting better”, Verstappen replied: “I think I should be like ‘oh, clutch, oh I’m switching! You’ll be punished otherwise!'”

The Dutchman called time on his session six minutes early.

“Okay, Max,” Hart said. “If you want to box, then come in at the end of this lap. Radio has gone poor, for info.”

Verstappen has been asked about his upshift and downshift radio complaints with his RB22 during Thursday’s media day in Brazil.

The Dutchman explained that he flags issues with gear changes because he believes small adjustments can unlock more lap time.

“With the shifts or whatever that you hear me complain about, it’s just because I’m never satisfied, because I think certain things can always be better,” he said.

“I always try to fine-tune or find improvements.

“So, if you hear it as complaining or whatever, it’s more for me to make sure that the team is always looking into the details to try and find more lap time because I know there is more lap time in it.”

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Red Bull’s head of race strategy Hannah Schmitz revealed after Friday’s running that the team would make changes to Verstappen’s car ahead of Saturday’s final practice.

“I think we’ll have a different wheel for the rest of the weekend, and we’re looking into quite a few changes on Max’s side,” she said.

“There are a number of things that he was unhappy with, but we know what they all are, and they’re all things that we can work on and improve.

“I think there is a lot of performance to gain, and obviously, in terms of lap times, we’re still pretty competitive up there with everybody else. So, given there’s still quite a lot of potential in the car, that looks optimistic for the rest of the weekend.

“I think it was a useful day. There’s definitely a lot of things to work on and look into overnight, but in a way, that’s what practice is for. I think there’s a lot of potential in the car, so looking forward to the rest of the weekend.”

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