{"id":810373,"date":"2026-07-18T16:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T16:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/810373\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T16:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T16:04:10","slug":"max-verstappen-grilled-on-unacceptable-red-bull-radio-outburst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/810373\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen grilled on ‘unacceptable’ Red Bull radio outburst"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> took to team radio early in FP2 at the Belgian Grand Prix, lamenting \u201cunacceptable\u201d downshifts in the Red Bull<\/a> RB22.<\/p>\n

Following the session, Verstappen<\/a> explained that he is \u201calways very sensitive to these things.\u201d He pointed to a Red Bull software update as being behind the unsatisfactory downshifts, a situation which he said slightly improved. Overall, Verstappen felt that the car was in \u201cquite a good window.\u201d His final FP2 deficit was \u201cnothing shocking now\u201d for the four-time champion.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen \u2018very sensitive\u2019 to Red Bull downshifts<\/p>\n

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for news you can trust.<\/p>\n

Verstappen topped the opening practice session at Spa-Francorchamps, sparking early optimism surrounding Red Bull.<\/p>\n

Energy deployment is expected to be stretched to its greatest extreme yet this weekend. Red Bull\u2019s internal combustion engine \u2013 adjudged to be the best by the FIA at the first ADUO checkpoint \u2013 therefore could make an impact.<\/p>\n

But by the end of FP2, and the qualifying simulation, Verstappen was just within half a second of Kimi Antonelli\u2019s P1 pace.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the session, Verstappen offered a realistic, but not necessarily downbeat reflection.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it\u2019s been alright for me,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t really have big problems. The car has been quite in a good window.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably in FP2, you see a little bit more the real gap still, but that\u2019s nothing shocking now, it\u2019s just expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a bit of a tough track with the energy management as well. It seems like we\u2019re a bit slower on the straights compared to some of our competitors. But balance-wise, it\u2019s been quite okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now for the elephant in the room, those downshifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy god, these **** shifts! Unbelievable, man. Why are they so ****?! It\u2019s unacceptable this.\u201d<\/p>\n

That radio message from Verstappen was delivered to Red Bull during FP2. It is not uncommon for Verstappen to complain about gearshifts, though the frustration was clear in this moment.<\/p>\n

Verstappen explained his grievance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always very sensitive to these things because I want to work on that and improve it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there was like, kind of a software update, or downgrade, that it took a bit of time for the shifts to learn basically, and then it got a bit better again at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Max Verstappen from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

Why Max Verstappen\u2019s manager visited McLaren team hospitality at Spa<\/a><\/p>\n

Max Verstappen willing to sacrifice speed after Red Bull\u2019s rear wing scare<\/a><\/p>\n

In summary, Verstappen stated on the RB22 that \u201csome bits were working well, and then sometimes it wasn\u2019t working. But overall, the car has been in a decent window.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next \u2013 Revealed: How Liam Lawson lost Belgian GP upgrade to Lindblad<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen took to team radio early in FP2 at the Belgian Grand Prix, lamenting \u201cunacceptable\u201d downshifts in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[16873,49,48,1613,1885,44,22395,1882,82],"class_list":["post-810373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-belgian-grand-prix","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-home-page","tag-max-verstappen","tag-news","tag-popular","tag-red-bull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}