Flustered Verstappen’s latest F1 radio rage amid brake worries

The Red Bull driver resisted a late charge from former title rival Lewis Hamilton to claim his 50th career victory in Sunday’s race at Austin.

But it was not all plain sailing for Verstappen, who encountered issues with his braking in the closing stages of the race. 

On Lap 34, he was heard telling race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase: “Mate, these brakes are so **** compared to yesterday. What a piece of ****.”

Seven laps later, things got heated between the pair after Lambiase informed Verstappen of where he was losing time to teammate Sergio Perez. 

“Just info at this stage Max but time loss to Checo 39.8, braking 11, 12, 20,” Lambiase said, before Verstappen fired back: “Yeah I know my brakes are just ****.”

“As I say, it was just information,” came Lambiase’s reply. 

Verstappen became increasingly flustered in the last few laps as the problem appeared to worsen. 

When told he was matching Hamilton’s pace, the three-time world champion said: “Please, no talking! I’m in the braking.” 

Verstappen later snapped “no talking in the braking, man! ****” when Lambiase let him know Hamilton was just 3.6s behind three laps from the end. 

The Dutchman ultimately crossed the line 2.2 seconds ahead of Hamilton as he racked up his 15th win from 18 races this season. 

Explaining his brake woes after the race, Verstappen said: “I just couldn’t feel the brakes. I very easily locked the fronts and I tried to adjust it and it was locking the rears. 

“It was just something very weird because normally I don’t have issues with braking. So this is just something that we need to understand, because when you are locking fronts and rears you are killing also your tyres, so that definitely didn’t help.

“Yesterday [Saturday], the feeling I had with the car was really amazing. And today [Sunday], it was not that great. But nevertheless we still won the race, so that's the most important. 

“And talking on the braking, when you're struggling already under braking and you don't feel that confident, I politely asked to not be spoken to. I said please when I asked!”