Max Verstappen Gives Damning Four-Word Response After Race Engineer Makes Rare Error

Max Verstappen gave a sharp four-word reply after a rarely-seen error from race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase during the Mexican Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver had an action-packed first half of the Grand Prix at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

He started in fifth place but drew alongside Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton for the lead into turn one.

Verstappen drove over the curb, however, and had to take avoiding action by leaving the track.

The Dutchman let Hamilton back through, but later made contact with the seven-time champion into turn one and narrowly escaped a penalty for forcing another driver off the circuit.

That short battle with Hamilton allowed Oliver Bearman to close in and overtake him for fourth position.

Red Bull's decision to put Verstappen on medium tyres - with the rest of the top order, bar team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, on softs - then started to look like the incorrect one as he dropped back behind Bearman.

That led Verstappen to question race engineer Lambiase on whether the team wanted him to pit or stay out.

"What do you want me to do?" Verstappen asked.

"What are we doing? We're staying out, Max," Lambiase replied.

Lambiase appeared to have left another pitwall channel on, as while talking to Verstappen, he could be heard saying: "Yep, so are we on a one-stop or a two-stop? Right, okay."

"I can hear everything!" Verstappen told him.

While the error may not be anything significant for the Dutchman's race, it showed that there was some indecision in the Red Bull ranks about when he would pit.

Verstappen ended up staying out on his used medium tyres, which allowed him to move up to second place as cars in front of him pitted.

Speaking on commentary for Sky Sports, David Croft said: "As a driver, you don't want to be hearing [that], because you want your point of contact to know everything, right?"

Pit reporter Bernie Collins explained: "Yeah, I think it'll be a button on a paddle in front of you. There's a lot of little tricks you can use to get away from that. I always had a beep so that I knew I was feeding to the driver and not anyone else in the team."