Hill's damning criticism of ‘out of sorts’ Verstappen continues

The 1996 world champion was left unimpressed with Verstappen’s calls for the sprint format to be scrapped on Saturday and branded the Dutchman a “poor loser” for his comments. 

Following Sunday’s race, Hill said he found it “a bit odd” that Verstappen had spent much of the weekend speaking out against the format. 

“Max has been off-tune hasn’t he this week?” Hill told Sky F1.

“He’s kind of done himself down a little bit by being down on the Sprint and not having a good race in the Sprint and all those things.

“I got the sense there’s something a bit out of sorts with Max at the moment. He’s talked about not wanting to race beyond 30 or whatever it is, weird stuff. Why is he talking about this now, he’s right in the middle of a championship and it’s a bit odd.”

Fellow Sky Sports F1 pundit Naomi Schiff agreed with Hill. 

“I was very surprised too”, the former W Series racer said. 

“For a driver that we know is someone who’s so hungry that he’s very upset when he comes second, he’s a guy who wants to win, he wants to have these World Championships – I was very taken aback and surprised by the fact that he’s mentioned he’s not here to have multiple numerous World Championships and that he’d rather potentially retire coming into this weekend.

“He’s obviously not been a fan of the Sprint format, and that’s also a bit of a downer for him this weekend. But I don’t think that’s been a problem on track for him this weekend. 

“I think it’s been more that he’s just not as comfortable maybe on this track as Sergio is over the course of the weekend. He’s been quick but Sergio has been just as quick so there is that.”

Verstappen finished second in Baku after losing out to Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez when he pitted just before a Safety Car was called. 

Perez controlled Sunday’s race to take an important victory and cut Verstappen’s championship lead down to six points after four rounds.