Max Verstappen branded his Red Bull “undriveable” ahead of this weekend’s Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, after escaping a penalty for a bizarre incident in FP2.
The Dutchman found an object, which later transpired to be a towel, and threw it out of the cockpit of his car during the second session at the Hungaroring.
Verstappen was placed under investigation by the stewards for jettisoning the towel onto the side of the track, but escaped with no more than a formal warning.
But the unusual incident may now be the least of his worries, as he is less than pleased with the RB21 after Friday’s running.
In FP1, the reigning World Champion finished in ninth place, and in FP2, he was down in 14th place, three tenths of a second slower than team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
After complaining that the car was “undriveable” over team radio during the session, Verstappen explained that his Red Bull was lacking grip and overall balance.
“Yeah, today was very tough,” he said. “Just really low grip feeling and not really a balance in the car.
“It’s difficult to say what is the exact problem, nothing really works. So this is something that we have to investigate overnight because so far of course it’s not been our weekend.”
Verstappen also explained the incident with the towel, saying it is usually used to wipe sweat off his face after getting out of the car.
Realising the potentially dangerous implications of leaving it to move around in the cockpit, Verstappen decided to remove it from the car in a manner as safely as he could.
“It’s just a towel that you normally wipe your face with when you come back in, so it was still in the car when I went out,” he elucidated.
“So instead of it, of course, maybe potentially flying in between my feet, which is the dangerous part, I drove offline and I got rid of it in the safest way possible.
“So I think the stewards understand that.”
READ MORE – F1 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix – FP2 Results
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