Max Verstappen calls early season criticism "big bullsh*t"

Max Verstappen made a rusty start to the 2018 season. Pundits and former drivers turned into critics and told the 21-year-old to change his driving style.

Since the Canadian Grand Prix, Verstappen has managed to produce some seriously good results. Those include his victory in Austria, and his unbelievable drive from P18 to finish second in Austin last weekend.

He's now 5th in the drivers' championship and is close enough to Valtteri Bottas to put some pressure on. At the weekend, Sebastian Vettel made a similar mistake to his own back in China. Verstappen referred to this to prove his point.

"You can see even a four-time world champion can make mistakes like that," Verstappen told ESPN.

"People saying I had to change my driving style, to me that was big bullshi*t, to be honest. They don't tell Sebastian to really change his driving style, I've never seen headlines like that."

The Dutchman went on to blame the quality of the car for his early season mistakes. He suggests he's always fighting harder with it and pushing more because the RB14 isn't a championship winning car.

“I think if I had a championship winning car this year those mistakes wouldn’t have been there, because you don’t always have to drive at 102, 103 percent," Verstappen added.

“Most of [the critcism] was just very unfair, so of course at one point I get tired of it. I know what I can do, it was just not coming out at the time, so I was working very hard at home to make sure it did come out. And then in Canada, it did.”