Why Red Bull rebuked Verstappen’s request for “pitstop training”
While cruising to his eighth successive victory in Sunday’s race in Belgium, having fought back from a grid penalty, Verstappen made a suggestion that underlined his superiority over the field.
“I could push on and we do another stop. A little bit of pit-stop training?” Verstappen confidently requested over team radio.
The response from race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase was blunt: “Not this time.”
It followed a series of confrontational radio exchanges with Lambiase throughout the race which Verstappen admitted were 50% serious and 50% joking.
After passing teammate Sergio Perez on Lap 17, the Dutchman went on to win by 22 seconds as he claimed his 10th victory from 12 races so far this season to extend his championship lead to a staggering 125 points.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner explained that Verstappen’s request was rejected because the team “didn’t want to end up with egg on our face”.
"We didn't want to get too greedy, because we won the sprint race yesterday, a 1-2 finish today, we didn't want to end up with egg on our face, compromising that in any way,” he said.
In the end, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton nicked the fastest lap bonus point off Verstappen on the 44th and final lap of the race.
"To give away one point, I don't think anybody will lose too much sleep over it,” Horner added.
"We got a little worried that the tyres - you could see they were starting to open up a bit - and we didn't want to get into too much depth. So, it was about just closing out the race.
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