Nico Rosberg was left less than impressed by Max Verstappen after his first lap incidents at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman suffered a bad start off the line and dropped two places on the run to La Source, having braked much later, however, he tried to recoup both of them by diving down the inside of Kimi Raikkonen into the hairpin.
Not quite fully alongside, the collision was inevitable as he pitched the Alfa Romeo onto two wheels, with the damage to his own car seeing him later go off at Eau Rouge.
“Verstappen was back to his old self a little bit,” Rosberg said in a YouTube vlog.
“Just too aggressive, really too aggressive. I don’t understand how he just stays flat out even with the car broken. He has balls of steel but that didn’t make an awful lot of sense.”
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Sunday wasn’t the first time, however, that Verstappen had suffered a bad start, following poor launches in Austria and Germany, ironically two races he would actually win.
Still, Spa saw his luck and a season-long points-scoring streak end and he admits it’s an area that needs addressing.
“We are struggling this year to keep the wheelspin consistent,” he told Ziggo Sport.
“It’s even different with every engine, so it’s always a mystery if it will be ok or not. This year it’s gone wrong quite a lot, so we know what we need to work on.”
This weekend in Italy it is expected that the 21-year-old will take on the new Spec-4 unit which was introduced by Honda last weekend for Alex Albon and Daniil Kvyat.
While Monza is historically a weaker circuit for Red Bull though, Verstappen isn’t concerned.
“I think it can be alright to overtake,” he said. “Nothing is confirmed yet about an engine penalty, but even if you start from the back I don’t think it’s a big deal.
“We all know Ferrari is going to be really quick there, and if you start from the back you probably won’t catch the top four. Everything behind that I think it’s possible to catch up with.”
