Max Verstappen, unsurprisingly, is the huge talking point following the Brazilian Grand Prix, after the double World Champion openly defied team orders on the final lap of the race at Interlagos.
Jaws were left hanging on the floor as the Dutchman crossed the finish line, as the 25-year-old informed the world of just who is in charge at Red Bull, and it’s certainly not Christian Horner.
Verstappen endured a complicated race, after recovering from last to sixth following early contact with Lewis Hamilton.
He had been running in seventh as the race drew to an end but was allowed to overtake team-mate Sergio Pérez to see if he could overtake either Fernando Alonso or Charles Leclerc, under one condition.
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Verstappen was told that he’d have to give the place back to Pérez if he couldn’t get past either driver, something he failed to do.
The team requested Verstappen multiple times to let Checo past; however, the Austrians were met by subtle silence from the Dutch driver.
After crossing the line in sixth, Verstappen was asked “what happened” by his race engineer, with his response being unbelievably cryptic.
“I told you already last time guys, don’t ask that again to me, okay,” said Verstappen.
“Are we clear about that? I gave my reasons and I stand by it.”
Verstappen revealed a side of himself that has never been seen so blatantly, with the driver seemingly believing that there is an ‘I’ in team.
Pérez was furious after the race and added that Verstappen showed “who he really is”.
It means that Pérez goes into the season finale level on points with Leclerc for second in the Drivers’ Championship, rather than two points ahead.
If Leclerc claims second in the standings by one point, then only Verstappen can be blamed, with the team’s dynamic completely up in the air following the incident.
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Ex-F1 driver Pedro de la Rosa has admitted that Verstappen must be made to “understand why it’s wrong” by Red Bull, with the Spaniard questioning if anyone will “want to work” with him based on his displayed behaviour.
“I think it’s the team’s job to make him understand why it’s wrong, and he has to understand because it’s very important if he wants to have a loyal squire like he has had in Checo,” explained De la Rosa to DAZN’s Spanish network.
“Nobody is going to want to work for Verstappen if they know that he is going to pay them back like this.”