Twenty-year-old Arjun Maini, currently competing in the FIA F2 championship which is one rung below F1, is the Indian closest to putting the country back on the Formula One map.
But on Sunday, the Bengaluru lad, driving for Trident, had a meltdown, breaking down on the team radio, after finishing 13th in the second race of the weekend in Paul Ricard, France.
During a weekend, in which he was plagued by engine issues right from practice, Arjun broke down on the cool-down lap after the reverse grid race and expressed his disappointment with the team.
His nearly 15-second expletive-ridden tirade was put up on the world feed and unsurprisingly went viral on social media.
“I swear, you guys don’t support me at all. I do everything…*censored* You can’t do this to me mate.. *censored* I don’t want to race in this championship any more.”
Earlier on Saturday, he had posted on Twitter saying the engine issues from practice to qualifying continued in the race too where he finished 10th after starting 17th.
The engines are provided by Mecachrome for all teams but the reliability of the engines have been below-par much to the frustration of a lot of drivers.
Arjun later clarified that his tirade was more aimed at the organisers than his team. Speaking to the Autosport website, Arjun was quoted saying, “They say it’s a one-make championship but it’s not a one-make championship. It’s a joke, what’s going on in this championship right now.”
“I’m speechless, because they go around like there’s nothing wrong and it’s a joke. They are killing our careers like this, completely destroying them.”
The Haas F1 team development driver, has 23 points after five rounds (ten races) with two fifth-place finishes in Monaco, the best result so far and lies 14th in the championship.
The Indian driver has beaten his teammate Santino Ferrucci (USA) comfortably, with the latter pocketing only four points so far.
