Spielberg: The true scale of the animosity stirred up by Lewis Hamilton's mocking bravado at the expense of his fellow drivers was exposed out of the mouth of Formula One's babe in the coarse language of the dressing room.

Hamilton has been quick to condemn the "moaners" whose obsession with safety triggered an imperious response from a devil-may-care world champion willing to risk all for glory.

But Max Verstappen, just 18, and the baby of the paddock, unwittingly exposed the gap between the public swagger and the private concerns as he prepared for the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday. He revealed how Hamilton was unceremoniously slapped down by Nico Rosberg, his Mercedes teammate and the world championship leader, in the drivers' briefing before the European Grand Prix in Azerbaijan.

Hamilton had scoffed at the concerns expressed by several drivers about the tight pit entrance, but it seems that Rosberg employed a street expression involving an amphibious reptile that amounted to Sir Alex Ferguson's "squeaky bum" term. "That's what [Lewis] says in the media but to his team it's different," Verstappen said.

"In the media he's saying like he doesn't care. In the driver's briefing, [we were] saying the pit entry was quite tricky and he says: 'Oh you shouldn't bother about it'. But then Nico jumped in and said, 'Lewis, you just said you were getting a turtlehead when you were entering the pit lane. So what is this approach?' Maybe [Hamilton] wants to be cool. We are looking for safety. We don't want to die on the track."

Rosberg refused to confirm the conversation, but he didn't deny it either. Jenson Button backed out of the discussion with a "no comment".

But Verstappen is as fresh as the rains that lashed the Spielberg circuit on Friday, briefly interrupting practice for the next instalment of F1's 2016 saga. He is unreconstructed by corporate F1 - so far - and fearless, despite his concern that safety is paramount. He says what he knows, even if it involves disrespecting his more illustrious peers. "I don't really care," he said. "I prefer to do it on track than talk about it in briefings or something. I'm definitely not afraid. It's not because he won world championships you can't go against him."

Verstappen was at it again here when he discovered that the authorities have laid down yellow kerbs to prevent drivers running wide to gain an advantage. He didn't like them before practice and definitely didn't once he smacked a set, broke his suspension and ran into the gravel.

"Really dangerous," he said. That was a moan, so a red alert for Hamilton, but the world champion could point out that the youngster was the only one to suffer all day.

Hamilton, like his rivals, was more concerned about the new, super smooth track laid around the Red Bull Ring. Dietrich Mateschitz, Red Bull's billionaire owner, has fashioned this motor racing theatre in the Styrian mountains and some ugly bumps were a blot on this beautiful landscape and had to be ironed out, he decreed.

The problem is that the alternative to the bumps was a surface like a skating rink. Mercedes had a man out on the track on Thursday, measuring the quality of the asphalt and Rosberg, displaying the usual thoroughness spurned by his teammate, has driven "quite a few laps" in the simulator to get a feel for the new, improved Red Bull Ring.

It must work because Rosberg was fastest man again. The concern for Hamilton is that his teammate is on a hat-trick of Austrian wins on Sunday and another - straight after Azerbaijan - will improve on the 24-point gap between them in the title standings.

Can there be a challenge to the Mercedes pair here? Probably not from Ferrari: Sebastian Vettel starts with a five-place grid penalty for an illegal gearbox change and finished on Friday in the gravel with dodgy brakes.