Max Verstappen addresses ‘bizarre’ Red Bull criticism in ‘focus on own team’ response

From accusations Red Bull were running a banned braking system to Zak Brown’s “poison” comments, Max Verstappen says people in F1, not only Brown, should “focus on themselves”.

Red Bull have had to deal with a lot on and off the track this season with the start of the championship mired by the Christian Horner saga.

Max Verstappen tells rivals: Just focus on their own team

The team boss was investigated by Red Bull’s parent company over alleged inappropriate behaviour with the charges dismissed.

But as that rumbled on in the background, the RB20’s dominant form from the early rounds of the season began to fade, Red Bull announced that chief designer Adrian Newey would leave the team in 2025 and rivals, especially McLaren CEO Brown, had something to say about it.

Calling Newey the “first domino to fall”, Brown said Red Bull had been “destabilised”, that it a “pretty toxic environment right now” and more recently spoke of there being “lots of poison” at one team.

He added to Autosport : “That is an unbelievably great team that, at the moment, is going in the wrong direction because of culture. People are leaving, lots of noise, look at the top, one team principal makes a statement, then Helmut [Marko] makes [a different one].

“Drivers aren’t happy, driver’s dads… but it is same factory and with a huge budget. So like, what’s changed? The culture of the people.”

Verstappen is tired of hearing the comments from Brown and others.

“People that say all sorts of stuff should just focus on their own team,” Verstappen told Motorsport.com . “That’s nothing specifically against Zak Brown, by the way, it applies to everyone.

“People just need to focus on themselves, and that’s what I’m doing as well.”

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Max Verstappen weighs in on ‘bizarre’ braking accusations

As for accusations that Red Bull were running a banned braking system by using asymmetrical braking torques, Verstappen scoffed at that.

The FIA tweaked Article 11.1.2 of Formula 1’s technical regulations in July, outlawing asymmetrical braking systems . With that change made at the same time as Red Bull’s troubles with the RB20 kicked off in earnest, it was suggested that was because they’d been running the braking system.

“People always come up with different stuff,” Verstappen said of that saga. “I find it really bizarre how they come up with some of these things, but it is what it is. It’s part of the game, but I usually just let it go.

“I’ve been in F1 for 10 years now and I’m not wasting time on all those stories. I mean, I barely read anything about F1 anyway. Of course, sometimes I see something or someone else tells me: ‘Did you see what this and that person said?’

“But I always say people can think what they want, I’m not going to waste my energy on that. So, I don’t really care about what other people say.”

Verstappen heads into the final six races of the season starting with the United States Grand Prix holding a 52-point advantage over McLaren’s Lando Norris with 180 points still in play.

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