BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Max Verstappen made no attempt to hide his disdain for Renault's dismal reliability record after suffering an early retirement from the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Verstappen slowed to a halt on the fifth lap of the race, immediately complaining of a lack of power. The Dutchman, who complained earlier this weekend the engine is costing the team over half a second on the straights alone, was running fifth when the issue occurred.
As his car slowed and he dropped down the order, the Dutchman opened up his radio channel to say: "Can I not just go ahead, I don't f---ing care if this engine blows up."
When told to stop by his race engineer, Verstappen pulled over onto the grass and replied: "What a f---ing joke, all the f---ing time with this shit, honestly!"
Despite claiming three wins in 2018 Red Bull has slipped away from the championship fight between Mercedes and Ferrari. Team boss Christian Horner said the early failure in Budapest shows Red Bull has not been getting what it paid for from Renault, taking aim at Cyril Abiteboul, the company's managing director.
"We pay millions for a state of the art product and you can see quite clearly it is some way beneath that," he told Sky Sports. "It's frustrating, but we've still got Daniel [Ricciardo] in the race. I'll let Cyril come up with the excuses afterwards."
Red Bull and Renault's relationship has been fractured throughout the V6 turbo era, which started in 2014. A lack of performance and reliability from the French manufacturer has hampered Red Bull from challenging for championships despite consistently producing a car seemingly capable of matching Mercedes and Ferrari.
Red Bull is switching to Honda power for next season, in what will effectively become a fully-fledged factory partnership. The Japanese manufacturer has been supplying Red Bull junior team Toro Rosso this year.