Max Verstappen explains strange towel-throwing incident in Hungarian GP practice

Max Verstappen has shed light on an unusual incident during Friday practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where he was seen throwing a towel from his Red Bull F1 cockpit.

Verstappen was seen throwing an object from his car in second practice at the Hungaroring.

The four-time F1 world champion slowed down on the approach to Turn 4 and threw it to the side of the track.

The stewards investigated the incident, and Verstappen was given a warning.

Reflecting on the bizarre moment, Verstappen felt he got rid of the object “in the safest way possible”.

“It was just a towel that you normally wipe your face with when you come back in,” Verstappen said after FP2.

“It was still in the car when I went out. Instead of it potentially flying in between my feet, which is the dangerous part. I drove offline and I got rid of it in the safest way possible. I think the stewards understand that.”

Shoud Max Verstappen have been more careful?

Sky F1 pundit Bernie Collins suggested that Verstappen should have returned to the pit lane to dispose of the towel as it could have disrupted a rival’s run plan in practice.

Collins explained: “It’s not uncommon. We already had, at one point this year, one of the McLaren drivers had a tool left in the car, from when they were doing an adjustment.

“Those types of thing happen from time to time. Those rags are used a lot when they are cleaning the car. On Max’s car they had a lot of flo-vis so they were probably cleaning that off, or cleaning his visor, or his steering wheel. There are lots of reasons why it could have ended up in there.

“It is unfortunate. He has tried to do the best job he could by throwing it out of the car. Arguably, should it have warranted coming in for a pitstop. Yes, it ruins your soft run.

“But it’s not anyone else’s fault that your soft run is ruined, it’s your team’s fault. To risk that getting sucked into someone else’s brake ducts or radiator?  That ruins their run completely because their team might not realise straight away.

“Their temperatures start to rise and you could destroy someone else’s engine. That’s the risk if that gets sucked in and you don’t get air flowing through the engine. There could have been more caution.”

Max Verstappen struggling at F1 Hungarian GP

Regarding Red Bull’s on-track performance, it was a difficult day for Max Verstappen.

He set the 14th-fastest time in FP2, finishing the session behind Yuki Tsunoda.

Verstappen voiced his frustration over team radio.

“I don’t know what is going on,” Verstappen said. “It is just undriveable.”

Verstappen admitted that “nothing” worked for him throughout the day.

“Today was very tough. Just really low grip feeling,” Verstappen added. 

“Not really a balance in the car so it was difficult to say what was the exact problem. Nothing really worked. 

"This is something that we have to investigate overnight because so far, it’s not been our weekend.”