Max Verstappen tells critics of foul-mouthed radio rants to “turn the volume down”

Max Verstappen has launched a defiant defence of his rants over F1 team radio at the Hungarian Grand Prix, telling critics to “don’t listen in” and “turn the volume down”.

Verstappen was vocal over the team radio during a frustrating race at the Hungaroring.

The Dutchman had a number of awkward exchanges with race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase as Verstappen could only finish fifth on-track.

Verstappen has since been criticised for the way he acted over team radio by Sky Sports pundits Naomi Schiff and Martin Brundle.

Unsurprisingly, Verstappen has hit back at the criticism.

He said in Belgium, where Crash.net are present in the paddock: “You know people that don’t like my language, then don’t listen in, turn the volume down you know. I’m very driven to success, I think I’ve proven that already, I always want to optimise stuff, now people can argue that he might not be so vocal on the radio but that’s their opinion.

“My opinion is that it needs to be said at the time to maybe also try and force that the second pit stop would have been a bit different, that’s how it goes.

“We are very open minded, very critical of each other, been working for us very well so I don’t expect that to change.”

Verstappen believes the world as a whole is too sensitive to taking criticism and he’s adamant that his approach to it won’t change.

“That’s our approach, I think it’s important you can be critical, because in this world we are living now I feel anyway a lot of people cant take criticism anymore like it used to be and I don’t want to end up like that,” he added.

F1 is unique in broadcasting communication between the drivers and the teams - something that isn’t the case in the majority of sports.

Verstappen insists he will continue to say what he wants.

“Well that’s also a thing, in other sports people say things but they don’t have a mic attached to their mouths,” he explained. 

“So in a way for the broadcast you can argue that, I don’t care, I say what I want, but that’s our sport naturally, you communicating a lot with the pit wall, you have the opportunity to talk, maybe other sport you swear yourself about stuff that you didn’t like, a team mate didn’t pass the ball, you call them whatever it is, there is no mic, just how our sport is I guess.”