Verstappen refuses to address speculation despite attack on media accuracy

Ewan Gale
Friday 18 November 2022 06:00

Max Verstappen has refused to be drawn on speculation his disobeying of team orders in Brazil was down to Sergio Perez allegedly deliberately crashing during Monaco Grand Prix qualifying.

The Dutchman was asked by Red Bull to pull aside and allow Perez to move into sixth to aid his battle against Ferrari's Charles Leclerc for second in the drivers' championship.

The denial could yet wound the team's chances of securing its first championship one-two in its history.

Verstappen launched into a furious outburst against the media ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and highlighted a lack of knowledge of the situation on numerous occasions during his attack.

But when pushed for the facts in order to help his own case, Verstappen replied: "I am not going to go into detail what that was because it will stay between myself and the team.

"It is incredibly disappointing that when not knowing the full facts, people are writing so many bad things straight away.

"I don't know why that is but at the end of the day, you contribute to all the problems social media has by writing these kinds of things so like I said before, it is incredibly disappointing to read these kinds of things.

"I know and the team knows how I work with them. I have always been good to the team."

Verstappen cites "miscommunication"

Verstappen was asked further for the reasoning behind his refusal, given the championship is already his and sixth place is not a highlighted position.

"It wasn't about the position," insisted the two-time champion. "It doesn't matter whether it was about first or second or sixth or 10th.

"It was about something earlier in the season and I already explained that in Mexico and the team understood and agreed.

"We went to Brazil and thought we were just going to race and get the best possible result and we had a bit of miscommunication. On Saturday and Sunday, nothing had been said to me about a potential swap.

"It only came into the last lap that it was said on the radio and they should have known my response from what I said the week before.

"After the race, we had some good discussions, put everything on the table and everything has been solved.

"In hindsight, we should have had that conversation earlier.

"I have never been a bad team-mate to anyone. I have always been helpful and the team knows that.

"I have always put the team upfront because at the end of the day, it is a team effort so what we learned from that is we have to be open and communicate better to each other."