Max Verstappen calls rear wing failures 'super-dangerous' after consecutive crashes

Max Verstappen said the rear wing failure on his Red Bull that caused him to crash at two consecutive grands prix was "super-dangerous".

The four-time world champion was chasing Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari for second place in the British Grand Prix when he lost control at the high-speed Stowe corner on lap 47.

The incident, as well as a crash in qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix the weekend before, were caused by his rear wing failing to close properly when straight-line mode switched off on corner entry.

Verstappen, who swore about the car over the team radio after the accident at Silverstone, said: "It's super-dangerous because you can really hurt yourself two times.

"I was lucky in Austria, I was lucky here. That's why you get really fed up with it."

Verstappen said the specific failures of the two incidents were not the same.

"Different fault but same outcome," he said. "While turning in, the rear wing is not fully attaching and you lose a lot of downforce and just spin off."

The Dutchman, who finished a close second in Austria but was unhappy with the car throughout the weekend at Silverstone, also expressed his dissatisfaction with Red Bull's performance this season.

He lies seventh in the championship, 103 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes, after nine races. He has retired from three of them because of problems with his car.

"I would be a very zen person to be optimistic at the moment with what happened again this weekend," Verstappen said.

"I'm sorry, but it's just like that. I mean, I need a few days, I think, to reset and try again.

"Everyone is trying their best. I'm not blaming one person or whatever. It's just painful for everyone, you know, that this has happened.

"I want to just finish races, first of all. That would be nice. At the moment, too many things go wrong. It's as simple as that. Not even speaking about pace."

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies said: "He's right not to be happy. It is very unpleasant for drivers to be let down by the car in the high-speed corners in two consecutive races, let it be for two different reasons.

"And it is in a much lower scale, also extremely unpleasant for us as a group to send our drivers to the gravel trap.

"I have no doubt that as a team we will put in place what is necessary for that not to happen again, even if we failed to do that today.

"And we take that as seriously as one can do, and therefore the minimum that Max can achieve today is being unhappy."