Verstappen - "I've been angrier" after Bahrain outburst

Sam Hall
Monday 21 March 2022 11:35 - Updated: 11:44

Max Verstappen claimed to "have been angrier" after calling out his Red Bull team for a 'lack of aggression' with its strategy during the F1 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Verstappen retired in Bahrain with three laps remaining after spending the vast majority of the 57-lap race second to Ferrari driver and race-winner Charles Leclerc.

After the second round of pit stops, however, Verstappen lit up his team radio with a rant saying: "This is two times I've taken it easy on the out-lap and I could have been in the lead. I'm never doing it again!"

Explaining his frustrations after being instructed to slowly ease his tyre into the working window rather than push hard on his out laps, Verstappen said: “I’ve been angrier before.

“I don’t hold back. I say what I think in the car and I was unhappy with what we were doing, the balance with the car that I had [and] with the strategy.

"This was not necessarily directed at GP [race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase] because I have a really good relationship with him but, of course, he is the only one I can talk to.

“But we have to analyse quite a few things.”

After the first round of stops, Verstappen and Leclerc engaged in a heated battle with the pair passing and repassing each other on three consecutive laps.

On his see-saw battle, Verstappen added: “It was good, and it was good fighting and Charles is a good racer as well so it was good fun out there."