On the radio, Verstappen raged against Sainz and his engineer

It’s a terribly frustrated Max Verstappen who crossed the checkered flag at the inaugural round. After a start that saw him overtake Hamilton, all hopes were allowed from the height of his provisional fourth place! Nevertheless, the rapid degradation of his tires caused his downfall. It also led to a deep misunderstanding with his engineers.

The driver clearly wanted to come back much earlier for his second stop, as shown by this message to his pit wall:

“I told you I had a problem with my tires, I wanted to stop first!”

Returning on the 31st lap, he lost precious seconds as his mechanics were not ready to receive him. He was then blocked by his teammate until the end of the Grand Prix. It was then that Verstappen literally lost his temper in an astonishing exchange with his race engineer, Xevi Pujolar.

Here are some selected excerpts from the radio conversation between the two men.

So behind Sainz and Palmer, Max Verstappen asks: “Can I try to overtake him (Carlos Sainz Jr)?”

Xevi Pujolar: “Yes”

MV: “Let me try, I’m losing too much time behind them!”

Xevi Pujolar: “Do it!”

MV: “We have to do something!”

This surprising dialogue was also conducted between Carlos Sainz and Marco Matassa, his own race engineer:

Marco Matassa: “Carlos, you need to attack!”

Carlos Sainz: “I’m attacking, I’m attacking, don’t ask me to do it!”

MM: “Yes, attack, otherwise we will exchange positions on the next lap (with Max Verstappen“)

But Max Verstappen was not favored by his team.

“Let me try because this takes too long!” – @Max33Verstappen. #F1 #AusGP @ToroRossoSpy pic.twitter.com/s5RE4m2hOn

— Mobil 1 The Grid (@grid1tv) March 20, 2016

What triggered his anger live on the radio, beeped by the FOM: “Carlos isn’t even accelerating and now you don’t want me to overtake him, it’s a ****** joke!”

The young Dutchman finally lost his nerve while attempting a daring overtake on his teammate in the penultimate corner. The result: a spin and a torn-off piece of the front wing. *“It was a frustrating afternoon,”* Verstappen declared once out of the car. *“There were communication problems with my team regarding our strategy, tough luck. We had a fantastic car and finishing tenth here was not the goal.”*

Sure of his racing strength, he stated: “I think I was faster (than Carlos Sainz Jr).”

On the other side of the garage, Carlos Sainz Jr wasn’t particularly pleased either: “I’m not completely happy with my race today; I think we could have scored more points. The race was chaotic, so it was difficult to have a clear strategy. I was still able to make some good overtakes – some of them were even particularly difficult!”

One thing is certain: Max Verstappen’s audacity is likely to fuel fan discussions again this season!