Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes Gianpiero Lambiase's "childish" remark was not aimed at Max Verstappen during the pair's unhappy radio exchange at Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix. (More Motorsport News)
Drivers' Championship leader Verstappen was forced to settle for fifth at the Hungaroring - his second-lowest finish of the season - Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris comprising a McLaren one-two.
The three-time world champion was involved in a collision with Lewis Hamilton on lap 63, after overshooting a corner on an attempted overtake.
It led Verstappen to vent his frustrations towards race engineer Lambiase, telling him over the team radio: "You gave me this s*** strategy. I'm trying to rescue what's left."
The Italian responded: "I am not even going to get into a radio fight with the other teams, Max. We'll let the stewards do their thing. It’s childish on the radio, childish."
It was a surprising exchange given the close-knit relationship shared between the pair, who have worked together for eight years.
However, Horner said Lambiase's comments were instead aimed at the radio traffic from rival teams hoping the stewards would penalise them.
"I don't think GP's [Lambiase] reference at that point was in reference to Max," he told reporters. "Others [were] obviously goading for penalties because obviously the stewards are listening to the radio as well.
"Max was frustrated, which you can understand. He has a very direct line of communication with his engineer. It's something that they’ll discuss between the two of them.
"They've been together for eight years and, yes, there are things we could have done better in the race today that we'll talk about as a team.
"I think everybody sees we need to find more performance, and everybody is working hard to do that and we'll have whatever discussions behind closed doors."
Verstappen, who still holds a 76-point lead over Norris at the Drivers' Championship summit, will head to next weekend's Belgian Grand Prix having not won any of his last three races; last going four without success during the 2020 season.
However, the Dutchman has won each of the last three races in Belgium, and could become only the third driver after Ayrton Senna and Jim Clark to win four in a row.
