Verstappen vents fury at Red Bull for overheating tyres

Max Verstappen has played down his radio outburst against his Red Bull team as “a natural reaction” after feeling his tyres were overheated by his crew before his final Q3 run.

The Dutch driver qualified down in sixth place for the 2018 finale in Abu Dhabi after feeling his final run was wrecked by overheated Hypersoft tyres which meant he ran off track with a lack of required grip.

After qualifying Verstappen was head over team radio swearing at his team, calling it “a fucking disaster” and blaming them for overheating his tyres.

Verstappen has defended his comments and feels they were “in the heat of the moment” after missing out at a crucial moment in qualifying.

“It’s just a natural reaction,” Verstappen said. “I lost the car, I went off, so I was just disappointed I couldn’t finish that lap.

“It was just in the heat of the moment as it was just not our qualifying. I could feel straightaway I was sliding too much then of course you keep on trying and trying and it’s not working and when I went off I was like ‘Ah for fuck sake’.

“They were a bit hot. I think they were too hot already before and I said maybe we should do something a little bit different.

“I went out of the box and they were even warmer so then I had to slow down even more and then at one point you can’t heat up your brakes like you want to into turn 1 and stuff so yeah, it all got a bit compromised.”

Verstappen feels given the variable track temperatures at the Yas Marina Circuit, which is hotter at the start of qualifying before the sun sets and the temperature drops later on, finding the right balance in heat is crucial which is something Red Bull to find in Q3.

“The problem is that on this track the temperature is so important,” he said. “We are all going so slow [on an out-lap] that if they are going too hot at the start you can’t cool them down that much. So when you start hot you know it’s going to be worse for the tyres on the last sector.”

Verstappen starts his Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the Hypersoft tyres, the only driver from the top three teams to do so, having needed the quicker compound tyres in the second session to confirm his Q3 place.

The Dutch driver doesn’t see the alternative strategy to his front-running rivals as a drawback going into the race and plans to go on full attack using the theoretically faster tyres at the start of the race.

“At the moment I don’t see it as a negative because they will be worried that at the start,” he said. “I will be coming to them so maybe it’s nice in a way that we are different. At least we have two cars with different tyres so we can do different things.”