Before the Hungarian Grand Prix had come to an end, Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase sarcastically congratulated Verstappen for failing to bring his tyres in gently.
And the Dutchman hissed back: “No mate, don’t give me that bull**** now. You guys gave me this f***ing strategy, okay. I’m trying to rescue what’s left. For f**k’s sake.”
Verstappen was criticised for his remarks at the time, but Red Bull’s chief engineer Monaghan has now revealed he has no issues with the driver’s conduct. “Perhaps I think Max sets a pretty high bar for himself as well as us,” Monaghan told PlanetF1.com.
“Last year and at races this year, he’s reached a level the others have thus far yet to match. And as such, if he feels that we are not attaining his high bar, we can expect those kinds of comments.
“I don’t really have a strong view on how he presents it to us, whether the tone is pleasant, unpleasant. Look at it as if he is sensing that we are not getting the most out of ourselves as a team.
“If he didn’t say anything, would it push us to do anything differently? Maybe, maybe not. But in making those comments, maybe view it as constructive criticism rather than a rant or anything like that.
“He wants the best for himself, he is a fairly significant figure in this team and he has probably the most public speaking platform.
“So, thick skin or not, I don’t mind. I think you have to try and maintain [Rudyard] Kipling’s poem If. You’ve just got to take what he’s saying as constructive criticism, not a personal insult, and move on with it.
“How he presents it I don’t mind particularly. I’ve had drivers rant at me in the past. A certain Spaniard I remember threw a chair at me once. He was a little bit upset with me, probably rightly so. [Verstappen is] fighting his corner – he wants the best for himself, he wants the best for us. How he puts it across, I really don’t mind. If I’m going to say anything to him, it will be in private.”