Verstappen to critics: "Just stick to the facts"

Max Verstappen has hit out at the critics he had early in the 2018 season, saying they portrayed him like he had lost all ability to drive as he struggled for form in the opening stages of the season.

The Dutchman's season did start rocky, to say the least. A spin during the Australian Grand Prix, self-inflicted accidents in Bahrain and in China during the races, while also crashing in FP3 in Monaco and during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.

His fortunes changed after that last one in Monaco though, as the Dutchman went on an incredible run for the remainder of the season, pulling off some amazing results as he won two races and got on the podium over ten times.

In Canada, Verstappen looked to have reached a boiling point with the critics. When somewhat jokingly threatened to headbutt the next journalist who was going to ask about his crashing, something that he looks back on with some more perspective now.

"I was just done with it," he told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

"It seemed like I lost my ability to drive. These days, people on social media give their opinions so easily, while they don't know the person at all. And often they're scared to tell you in your face. Keyboard warriors, that's what I call them. That's the way it is."

What set the 21-year-old off during 2018 is that everyone had an opinion on his driving, which was very irritating to him.

"I can give my opinion on football, but I don't know anything about that either. Sometimes I think I do, when I'm watching television. But who cares what I think about football? The manager isn't going to think: 'Max said this, so I have to change things now'. That's what I feel with people who just say things about F1. I just think: most of them don't know anything about it, just stick to the facts."