Max Verstappen fumes at ‘unacceptable’ Red Bull F1 car issue in Belgian GP practice

Max Verstappen fumed over team radio about the behaviour of the gearbox in his Red Bull Formula 1 car during second practice at the Belgian Grand Prix. 

The four-time world champion made a promising start to the weekend by topping opening practice at Spa-Francorchamps in his Red Bull, before ending the day third-fastest and nearly half a second off the pace in FP2. 

Verstappen was heard complaining about gearshifts, as he so often does, in his RB22 during the early stages of the second hour of practice running on Friday. 

“My God, these **** shifts!” Verstappen vented over team radio. “Unbelievable, man, why are they so ****?! It’s unacceptable, this. My God.”

Speaking after getting out of the car, Verstappen tried to downplay the issue. 

“I’m always very sensitive to these things because I want to work on that and improve it,” the Dutchman explained. 

“I think there was a software upgrade, or downgrade, that it took a bit of time for the shifts to learn basically and then it got a bit better again at the end.

“Some bits were working well and other times it wasn’t working but overall the car has been in a decent window.” 

While encouraged by Red Bull’s start in Belgium, Verstappen is expecting the gap to Mercedes to increase come final practice and qualifying on Saturday. 

“Probably in FP3 we will see maybe more the real gap,” he added. “Still, it’s nothing shocking, it’s expected. 

“It’s just a bit of a tough track with the energy management as well. It seems we are a bit slower on the straights compared to some of our competitors. But balance-wise, it’s been quite okay.” 

Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache stressed the team still has room to improve overnight. 

“It’s a good starting point but we still have a lot to improve on the balance side, especially the short run on the degradation side for sure,” Wache said.