Zak Brown tears into Red Bull over ‘lack of respect’ and Max Verstappen behaviour | F1 | Sport
Zak Brown has called out the Red Bull leadership team for a general ‘lack of respect’, accusing the reigning world champions of ‘encouraging’ Max Verstappen‘s behaviour.
The Dutchman picked up a puncture and a 10-second time penalty for colliding with Lando Norris while fighting for victory at the Austrian Grand Prix, but the Red Bull driver refused to accept responsibility after the chequered flag.
This behaviour was then backed up by team principal Christian Horner, who insisted that the three-time world champion was not going to change his ways.
“Max is a hard racer,” Horner told Sky Sports F1. “He’s probably one of the hardest racers on the circuit and everybody knows that if you’re going to race against Max, he’s going to give as good as he gets.”
Offering his thoughts on the battle ahead of the British Grand Prix, Brown said: “Max and Lando were just duking it out as you would expect them to do and until someone tells Max: ‘Hey that’s against the regulations’, he’s not going to know any different and so I think there was missed opportunities for the stewards to make note.
“Also disappointed in such a great team like Red Bull that the leadership almost encourages it because you listen on the radio and what was said… you know we all have a responsibility on pit wall to tell our drivers the dos and don’ts and what’s going on in the race and so I think we need to have respect for regulations.
“And we’ve seen there be a lack of respect whether it’s financial regulations or sporting on track issues with fathers and things of that nature that, you know, I just don’t that’s how we need to go racing and we need to guide our drivers on what is right or wrong.
“And I think, had it been addressed earlier, maybe that incident wouldn’t have taken place. So racing accident that I think could have been avoided if the pit wall and the stewards had maybe been more on top of what the regulations say you can and can’t do.”
With Norris playing down the fallout of his race-ending crash and Brown and team principal Andrea Stella still enraged, the stage is set for a tense battle with Verstappen at Silverstone on Sunday.