Martin Brundle doubled down on his belief that Max Verstappen was not smart in calling the stewards “stupid idiots” in Abu Dhabi.

The outburst came in relation to an opening-corner collision with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, as Verstappen sent it down the inside and clipped the McLaren, sending them both into a spin in a race where McLaren were bidding to secure their first Constructors’ title since 1998, which they did as Lando Norris took the win and Piastri recovered to P10.

Martin Brundle not impressed with Max Verstappen outburst

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The stewards deemed Verstappen “wholly at fault” for the incident and issued him with a 10-second time penalty, a punishment which did not go down well with Red Bull’s four-time World Champion.

“Could we ask for 20 seconds? Stupid idiots,” Verstappen came back with on the radio after being informed of his penalty.

On Sky F1 commentary duties at the time, Brundle had criticised Verstappen’s response, saying it was “just not fair” to say, and in his Sky F1 column, Brundle expanded on that viewpoint, claiming it was not a wise move from the 2024 World Champion.

“McLaren needed all their experience and calm when at the very first corner of the race Max Verstappen sliced his Red Bull up the inside second-place man Piastri and they made contact, both heavily losing out with Piastri falling to the very back,” Brundle wrote.

“Verstappen claimed he was fully alongside, but he wasn’t. Perhaps Piastri could have left a bit more space, but I doubt he saw the late lunge.

“Ayrton Senna famously said that if you don’t go for a gap you’re no longer a racing driver, but Max really didn’t need to take that 50/50 risk for either of them.

“After he received a 10-second penalty, angry Max in the car called the stewards “stupid idiots” which is not fair or smart of him at all, but calmer Max after the race went to apologise to Oscar and McLaren.”

Verstappen said he had tried to back out of the move, but was unable to avoid the contact with Piastri.

“My launch was good and then I tried to grab the inside and I quickly realised, once I committed to it, that the gap was closing and I wanted to try and get out of it, because I didn’t want to naturally, of course, crash with Oscar,” he explained to the media, including PlanetF1.com.

“But unfortunately, we still clipped each other, but I already apologised to Oscar, it is not what you want to happen, and especially not with him. He’s a great guy but it happened, and it is a bit unfortunate.

“The thing was that, when you’re in that position, you’re focusing on the car ahead…you commit. When you start first or second, you never really look behind.

“So I went for it, and then I realised, ‘shit, he doesn’t see me there’. So I was like trying to get out of it, but then we still clipped.”

Final F1 2024 head-to-head standings

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

When asked by PlanetF1.com about the Verstappen and Piastri incident, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella explained the positive aspect of that collision, as it allowed McLaren to display their strengths on their way to still securing the title.

“The first thought I had after checking corner one is that it felt unnecessary,” he said. “When you have teams fighting for the Championship, it’s the pinnacle, it’s the time to harvest the efforts of a season. That felt a little unnecessary.

“But, sometimes adversities give you the opportunities to show your strengths, and I think that’s exactly what happened today.

“First of all, because Oscar never gave up, and he came back to scoring a point that could have been very important, if not the two points that could have been decisive even, in case of a swap between Carlos and Lando.

“Lando showed his strengths, delivering a perfect weekend and a perfect race when all the pressure was on him, and he stayed very calm, very calm on the radio, he considered some difficult options that we gave him, like when we said would you pit in case of Safety Car or not for a new set [of tyres].

“So I think we saw Lando at his best, and his best is just incredibly competitive.

“I can’t wait to see Lando and Oscar in the future with a competitive car right from race one.

“And for me, if anything, the opportunity to show the strengths was in the last pit-stop. The whole season was in the last pit-stop. A problem at the pit-stop, and we could have lost the position to Carlos, and we could have lost the Championship.

“And the guys delivered, what I think is one of the best pit-stops of the season, confirming the trajectory, which was not only car performance, but was the overall maturity, mentality, emotional resilience of the entire team.

“So, all this somehow was given the opportunity to be shown thanks to the accident in corner one.

“But, hopefully in the future, we don’t need adversities, and we can have just a faster car, and we can be just safer and not being in a decisive race at the last races of the season.”

Read next: Max Verstappen incident opens up major penalty debate for F1 2025 season