Verstappen reveals Silverstone podium would have painted false picture: 'Not deserved'

Max Verstappen was running in third place behind the two Ferraris in the closing laps of the British Grand Prix after Kimi Antonelli suffered a car issue that ultimately dropped him out of the points. However, due to another issue with the RB22, the four-time world champion ended up in the gravel at Stowe himself.

According to the Red Bull Racing driver, finishing on the podium would have been purely down to luck. He told GPblog, among others, after the race: "[I was] lucky of course with everything that happened around me with the penalty for Lewis, a slow puncture for George, Kimi's problem. So even if we of course we would have finished on the podium, I mean you take it, but it's not deserved at all. On the hard tyres we were really slow. I don't know how I kept George and Lewis behind for so long. But yeah, just the whole weekend I had a terrible balance, no top speed compared to the other car as well in the garage, and in the race was exactly the same, which I already predicted, yeah."

The Dutchman then once again added that he wanted to start from the pit lane. However, the Austrian team opted against that in the end. "Yeah, I don't know [why they didn't change]. I mean, I wanted to start from the pit lane. They were maybe confident to fix it, which I was not.

Red Bull Racing's management is reportedly extremely annoyed with Verstappen, who has once again put the Austrian team on hold. According to Dutch newspaper De Limburger, the shareholders had hoped for more goodwill from the four-time world champion, but for now they are still waiting for Verstappen’s “yes.”

For the first time, the Dutchman would be able to active a clause which would allow him to leave the team. After the dramatic end to the British Grand Prix, Verstappen can no longer officially be in the top two of the world championship at the summer break. That would allow him to trigger a clause and leave Red Bull. Contractually, he doesn’t have to inform Red Bull of this until October.