Verstappen 'outburst' triggered by Red Bull pressure - Steiner

Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner believes Max Verstappen's recent "outburst" in the Hungarian Grand Prix was triggered by the driver now feeling the "pressure". 

Red Bull's performance advantage disappeared in the closing rounds prior to the summer break, with Mercedes and McLaren in particular catching the Milton Keynes-based team. 

Whilst Verstappen still leads the drivers' championship by 78 points, McLaren has whittled down Red Bull's advantage in the constructors' standings to just 42. 

It was in Hungary, however, the penultimate round before to the current summer break where Verstappen showed the first glimpse of a chink in his armour, as he lashed out over the radio throughout the race.

From start to finish, Verstappen was critical of his team, his opponents and the stewards, which disappointed team principal Christian Horner. 

Horner and advisor Helmut Marko handled the incident behind the scenes after the race, although Steiner would have tried a different approach.

"I would have tried to calm him because he now feels the pressure," Steiner said on the upcoming episode of the RacingNews365 podcast that goes live on Monday at 4 pm UK (5 pm CEST).

"You always need to think that going aggressive against him would have upset him even more. 

"He now needs to know that he has to live the rest of the season not having the dominant car anymore. He needs to deal with that and this was an outburst, and I'm sure Christian and Helmut Marko talked with him after the race that what he did wasn't right.

"Max is a pretty smart guy and I think that the emotions got the better of him. Because when you are used to winning, not all the time but quite dominantly, and all of a sudden you're under pressure, you need to do something different."

Verstappen needs Red Bull

Verstappen's radio anger was unlike anything heard from the 26-year-old. Frustration has previously been heard, but his aggression when speaking to the team in Hungary was striking. 

Steiner believes it is understandable Verstappen reacted in such an unusual manner with his and Red Bull's dominance ending. 

However, despite Red Bull being caught, the former Haas boss has outlined that the three-time F1 champion cannot forget that he needs the team's backing. 

There were signs of him recognising this the following week in Belgium where he was calm and occasionally joked with race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase despite starting 11th and finishing fourth. 

"You just hit out at everything you can, because can you imagine how you would feel when you're on this wave, everything is going well and then it all - I wouldn't say it stops - but you're not comfortable?" questioned Steiner. "You need to fight for every little bit.

"Any little mistake makes it more difficult and he just let go. And then I think he came to the conclusion after the race, I need to behave differently because you always need a team.

"The driver is very important, but he's just part of a big team. If the team is not behind you, a driver cannot do anything. He's lost, as much as being on his own and that's not good.

"I think he reflected, he talked with Christian and Helmut and they explained that to him and he came back in Spa a completely changed guy."

Verstappen title risk

Whilst Verstappen's Budapest radio antics were not ideal for Red Bull, it did make for an impressive amount of media traffic. 

Fans all shared their thoughts on Verstappen's behaviour via various social media platforms, generating significant views for F1. 

Whilst this is a positive for the audience, Steiner does not believe it's good for the sport itself. 

Should Verstappen have further moments in the second half of the season similar to what happened in Hungary, for example his clash with Lewis Hamilton, then Steiner has warned that the title might not be the reigning world champion's this year.

"Let's hope it stays like this," Steiner said, referring to Verstappen's calm nature in the Belgian Grand Prix. 

"I don't know if for entertainment it's better he goes back to the thing before, but we don't have to think about us, we have to think about the sport.

"If he stays calm, he can still win the championship. But if he does actions like he did against Lewis in Budapest, he could lose it."