Verstappen 'doesn't care' about Toro Rosso team orders

The Dutchman was left furious after the Melbourne race, when strategy calls and a slow pitstop dropped him behind his teammate, and then Sainz refused to follow an order to swap places.

After urging his team to learn lessons from what happened as it threw away the opportunity for a decent points haul, Verstappen thinks it is ultimately irrelevant whether or not his bosses abandon any future orders.

"To be honest I don't know and I don't care," he said, when asked if position swapping was now off the table in the future.

"Normally I should be miles ahead. It should be fine."

Toro Rosso step up

Verstappen labelled his first race of the season as 'disappointing' as he felt Toro Rosso had thrown away the opportunity to deliver a much better result.

"You could clearly see it," he said. "I think we should have been close to [Daniel] Ricciardo if we had the right pit stops and stuff. To finish tenth is of course really disappointing."

When asked about what happened during the pit stop sequence, when he asked to stop but the team chose to pit Sainz instead, Verstappen said: "That's where the miscommunication started. I wanted to pit and I didn't hear anything. And then I pitted and then the tyres weren't ready."

Pushed on if the team later requested Sainz pull over to let him through, Verstappen said: "That didn't happen, of course.

"Ah, it's fine. I knew I was much faster today. I'm not worried that the pace is not there. We just had a bad pitstop and then when you come out you are behind."

"To be honest for me it's fine. I feel I have everything under control. I don't feel the pressure of him. I'm focussing ahead, that's my competition."

Lessons learned

Verstappen and Sainz spoke with team boss Franz Tost about the race on Sunday night, and the Dutchman felt there was no need for him to clear the air any more.

"No, we just need to analyse everything and become stronger for the next race," he said.