Christian Horner clarifies ‘childish’ Max Verstappen radio exchange after Lewis Hamilton clash

Christian Horner explained that Max Verstappen’s race engineer, Gianpiero ‘GP’ Lambiase, was not calling the three-time World Champion “childish” directly while on team radio on Sunday, in the aftermath of his tangle with Lewis Hamilton.

Verstappen had a double lock-up at Turn 1 as he looked to pass the Mercedes driver, eventually going airborne as his rear tyre hit Hamilton’s front, dropping him down to fifth at the chequered flag – bringing about another in a series of frank radio exchanges between the Red Bull driver and his long-time engineer at the Hungaroring.

Christian Horner clarifies Max Verstappen radio message after Lewis Hamilton collision

The World Championship leader had made multiple complaints to his team throughout the race about how his car had been handling, the strategy he had been running and more, but he was still in the hunt for the podium in chasing down Hamilton.

After making a move at Turn 1, the Red Bull driver was sent skyward – with a hard landing after the pair clashed wheels, with both driver and engineer giving forthright views of the incident.

Verstappen exclaimed after his tangle with Hamilton: “He moved under braking!”

Lambiase responded: “I’m not even going to get into a radio fight with the other teams, Max. We’ll let the stewards do their thing. It’s childish on the radio. Childish.”

When discussing the increasingly fraught radio messages from his driver as the race progressed, Horner was asked about that labelling of ‘childish’ from Verstappen’s race engineer, and the team principal was quick to clarify his belief of what he was referring to at that moment.

“GP, I think at that point actually wasn’t referring to Max, I think he’s referring to others on the radio complaining about penalties,” Horner said after the race.

More on the latest Hungarian Grand Prix F1 news

👉 Revealed: Every message as McLaren desperately pleaded with Lando Norris to obey team orders

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

“So, I don’t think GP’s reference at that point was in reference to Max. Others are obviously goading for penalties, because obviously, the stewards are listening to the radio as well.

“They’ve been together for eight years, and there are things that we could have done better in the race today, but it’s something that we’ll talk about as a team.”

Verstappen and Lambiase have been referred to as an ‘old married couple’ in their communications by Horner in the past, with their forthright opinions having been exchanged over time.

But after the disappointment of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Red Bull team principal said they will have any talks they need to have away from the public eye.

“Max was frustrated, we can understand,” he said.

“He has a very direct line of communication with his engineer, so that’s something that will be discussed between the two of them.

“I think everybody sees that we need to find more performance. Everybody’s working hard to do that, so we’ll have whatever discussions behind closed doors.”

Read next: Max Verstappen lashes out at critics following tense Hungarian GP: ‘They can all f**k off’