Max slams ‘sickening’ abuse as Red Bull row rages on
MAX VERSTAPPEN has told his most virulent critics that attacking his family on social media is unacceptable, as red Bull’s unseemly internal dispute raged on. the world champion denounced as ‘sickening’ and ‘disgusting’ abuse and death threats made since he refused to move over for team-mate sergio perez at the close of last sunday’s race in Brazil. the instruction was issued because the team want perez to finish runner-up in the championship to secure their first one-two in the standings. He is level with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc going into sunday’s final round here in Abu Dhabi. the Dutchman’s non-cooperation triggered a massive backlash on social media — and one that clearly hurt. He hit back strongly, saying: ‘All the things I have read are pretty disgusting. ‘even more than that, they started attacking my sister, my mum, my girlfriend and my dad. For me, that goes way too far when you don’t even have the facts of what was going on.
‘that definitely has to stop. If you have a problem with me, that is fine, but don’t go after my family because that is just unacceptable. ‘It’s pretty sickening to be a part of all that when at the end of the day I haven’t done anything wrong.’ Verstappen has alluded to an event in the past that played on his mind when the request to move over was made. He has privately made it known he believes perez deliberately crashed in qualifying at Monaco to secure pole position. perez flatly denied this yesterday.
Immediately after the Brazil incident, all parties sat down and discussed their concerns before supposedly moving on. But then, according to a source, Verstappen’s father Jos demanded that Max should be publicly absolved of blame. this prompted a statement from the team yesterday, saying: ‘Max was only informed at the final corner of the request to give up position without all the necessary information being relayed. this put Max, who has always been an open and fair team player, in a compromising situation with little time to react, which was not our intention. the team accept Max’s reasoning.’ two months to the day since Sportsmail revealed the news, Haas yesterday confirmed that Mick schumacher, 23, has been dropped to make way next season for his fellow German nico Hulkenberg.