Verstappen: My critics were only jealous

Max Verstappen says criticism of his early season struggles with Red Bull was fuelled by "hate and people being jealous". The Dutchman saw points slip through his fingers with errors in five of the first six races of 2018, although he has responded with back-to-back podium finishes ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.

Verstappen was forced to retire in Bahrain and Azerbaijan after collisions with Lewis Hamilton and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo respectively.

Errors in Australia and China cost him further, while a crash in Monaco practice robbed him of the chance to win a race that Ricciardo ended up victorious in.

Harsh words for Verstappen even came from inside his Red Bull team, but the 20-year-old says naysayers from outside were too quick to criticise.

"In every sport there is always hate and people being jealous, so I guess it is that," he told The Guardian.

"People always think they know better. In football everybody thinks they can be head coach and do it better. It's the same in F1, they always know better, even if they have no experience of it.

"In general the spotlight has been on me. But up until this year it was all amazing and great and then you have maybe two or three bad weekends and all of a sudden it's: 'You can't drive any more.'

"It is very unfair and on social media you have all these keyboard warriors who just type something and they never say it to my face.

"That's very weak I find. Most of it has been very unfair.

"Sometimes people make mistakes and I admit I make mistakes, I have always been clear on that but then they make such a fuss about it and try to over?complicate the situation to try to find something behind it that is not there. That annoys me."