Max Verstappen has called out individuals who abuse others on social media after one of his team-mates was targeted after a recent race.

Verstappen competed in a GT3 event at Portimao earlier this month for his own team, Verstappen Racing, competing alongside Chris Lulham and Ben Barnicoat.

It was a disappointing ninth-place finish for Verstappen and company in the end, but the race was marred by a tirade of abuse aimed at Lulham after an aggressive overtake attempt while he was in the car saw the team hit with a drive-through penalty, essentially ruining their day.

Verstappen took to social media himself after he became aware of the backlash Lulham was receiving, calling out the personal attacks and making it clear that there is no room for them in motorsport.

Max Verstappen tells keyboard warriors to 'eff off'

Speaking to the media ahead of this weekend's US Grand Prix in Austin, Verstappen was asked about the topic and whether more needs to be done to tackle online abuse.

Sadly, Verstappen says the incident did not surprise him. He also had a clear message for anyone who sends abuse his way, but he definitely won't stand for it aimed at one of his drivers.

“That starts already with the social media companies themselves," Verstappen argued. "Where you can make as many troll accounts as well, with no real names or addresses attached to them.

“Yeah, people can say whatever they like online. I mean, for me personally, I don’t care, like, if it’s targeted at me, I mean, they can all eff off.

“But when it’s to one of my drivers who is young and is not used to this kind of pressure and attention, when they start writing these kinds of things, it’s quite extreme, and that’s why I felt the need to put that statement out."

Verstappen: It was important to make statement

Verstappen continued, revealing that he had talked with Lulham after the incident, who was also relaxed.

The Red Bull star says it's still unacceptable though, and that is why he felt the need to speak out at the time.

“Even though, of course, I’ve talked to him about it, and I try to make sure that he doesn’t really read about it too much, and I know his character," Verstappen explained. “I think he’s quite relaxed, but it’s still not nice and definitely not deserved because he’s, first of all, just a great guy.

“He’s, of course, learning. We’re all learning. We all make mistakes. That’s also not a problem for me, right? He did such a great job all weekend, and then a tiny little misjudgment. Of course, yeah, it gave us a penalty, but there is no need to throw any kind of hate towards him.

“I think that’s why it was just very important to make that statement.”