Max Verstappen says critics who linked Red Bull’s lack of performance in Singapore to revised Technical Directives “can go suck on an egg” after his emphatic pole lap in Japan.
Red Bull endured its least competitive showing of the season in Singapore, which it attributed to inherent weaknesses in the RB19 allied with poor set-up direction, limiting Verstappen to fifth spot.
It was the first race after the introduction of a couple of Technical Directives, relating to clarifications on flexi-wings and floors, though Red Bull swiftly dismissed any correlation.
Verstappen has controlled the Japanese Grand Prix weekend so far, topping all three practice sessions, and claimed pole position at Suzuka by over half a second.
“Honestly, yeah, we had a bad weekend,” he said. “Then people start saying it’s all because of the technical directive, but I think they can go suck on an egg.
“From my side, I was just very fired up to have a good weekend here and make sure we were strong.”
Verstappen dipped into the 1:28s on his final push lap, having been in the low-1:29s on his opening Q3 lap, which ultimately would have been quick enough for pole position anyway.
“He [Race Engineer Gianpiero Lambiase] told me a 1:28s would be nice, so I told him I was going to send it. He was like ‘yeah, but don’t crash the car right?’ and I said obviously that was not what I was going to do!
“There was still a little bit left in a few places and that’s what I tried to tidy up, which worked out quite well.”
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Is this the level of politeness that F1 is aspiring?