F1 News: Red Bull's note to Max Verstappen speaks volumes about relationship issues

Max Verstappen

Red Bull's note to Max Verstappen speaks volumes about relationship issues

Is Max Verstappen going to leave Red Bull?

By Jan Bolscher.

Monday 13 July 2026 10:56

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According to analyst Peter Windsor and former F1 race engineer Mark Slade, a striking moment during British Grand Prix qualifying revealed more about Red Bull Racing’s current struggles than the team might have wanted.

In a live stream on Windsor’s YouTube channel, the pair discussed how a message from the engineers to Max Verstappen spoke volumes about the team’s challenges.

Between the first and second qualifying sessions, four-time world champion Verstappen was given a sheet of paper containing telemetry data and a brief note from his team. The handwritten message stated that there was still data the team needed to understand, and it was broadcast for the world to see.

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It was not a good look for Red Bull, and now Slade has suggested that it will not help the driver's confidence in the team, with Verstappen's future at Red Bull being called into question recently.

'Notegate' unfolded during a difficult weekend at Silverstone, where Verstappen managed only a seventh-place start, before crashing out of the main race later in the weekend, his third DNF of the season.

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Slade slams Red Bull notes

Slade, who has worked with drivers like Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso in the past, was asked by Windsor whether it is normal to have notes like Red Bull's written to the drivers, to which he replied: "No.

"To actually write 'we need to understand this', I don't think that's great because that is not a good message to send to a driver, let alone a driver of Max's style.

"It's a bit of an admission of failure isn't it. What will be interesting for me is were there any examples of that earlier in the weekend that they should have spotted and worked out sooner?

"As a driver, I'd be sat in the cockpit going 'Is this the first time that's happened? Why haven't we seen this before?'"

Verstappen ultimately handled the situation in his own unmistakable style. After reviewing the data, he crumpled the note and tossed it out of his cockpit. "You have to be careful with these things," Slade continued. "Sometimes you do see little details, differences and they do count for something, but it's a decision by the race engineer really to decide what does get to the driver and what doesn't."

F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Peter Windsor