‘It’s just painful’ – Verstappen details recurring Red Bull issue behind his Silverstone crash

Max Verstappen has branded a recurring issue with his Red Bull car as "frustrating and painful" after he crashed out of the British Grand Prix with just four laps to go.

The Dutch driver was sitting third, with a podium spot potentially on the cards, when he span out of proceedings and ended up in the gravel at Stowe.

His off triggered a late Safety Car as marshals worked to remove his beached RB22, with Charles Leclerc going on to win the race as it concluded in neutralised conditions.

Speaking afterwards, the four-time World Champion blamed the same rear-wing issue that caused him to crash during Qualifying in Austria the previous race weekend.

"When the rear wing doesn’t close fully, you lose a lot of downforce and you spin off the track," he said. "So, yeah. One time, okay, but two times… this is becoming dangerous for myself. And obviously, I don’t want that."

When asked where he goes from here after a disappointing weekend, Verstappen seemed despondent.

"I don’t know," he reflected. "I mean… yeah. It’s just painful, frustrating. You know, you’re trying everything you can. Yesterday, of course… I mean, the whole weekend I’m not happy with the car balance. I’m down on top speed on my side of the garage.

"Same again today in the race. If it was up to me, I would have started from the pit lane, but yeah. At the moment, I’m honestly just looking forward to going home and not thinking about Formula 1."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Red Bull garage, Isack Hadjar finished in fifth – the same position where he started – and conceded he was frustrated at not being able to make moves higher up the order.

"Very good pace the first few laps," he said. "I was right within Max’s overtake mode and, I don’t know, it just felt nice. Then we had a huge drop-off. Even on new tyres, on the new hard after the pit stop, I don’t know… just not much pace. I was really lacking load on the car.

"Once we changed the front wing and I went out again, we gained a lot of lap time. So I was happy again, but at the same time I was like, 'okay, I just wasted my whole race,' because four or five laps had gone by and I’d lost many positions. So, quite frustrating."

When asked if he felt he was getting the most out of the car, despite the results, the French driver added: "I think I got on top of what the car could do with the new package, which I couldn’t really do at the Red Bull Ring.

"So I’m happy with that. Now we just need to understand what went wrong during that no-man’s-land stint, and then maybe we can go and fight further ahead."