Max Verstappen has lengthy been the heel of the System 1 paddock, and within the latter half of the 2024 season it appears younger Lando Norris is enjoying the face. Not like a rehearsed skilled wrestling bout on a padded ring, Max Verstappen’s aggressive strikes are taking place at 100 miles per hour on asphalt, and as a substitute of a 3 pound chair-to-the-face, Verstappen’s weapon of alternative is his 1,800 pound Purple Bull RB20. Week in and week out the defending F1 champion pushes his rivals past the boundaries of the observe, and the message is obvious. “When you don’t let me have this place, you’re ending up in that wall.”
After the overall shitshow that was the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin earlier this month, which noticed Verstappen push Norris off the observe and by the arcane rulebook one way or the other Norris acquired a penalty for it, drivers demanded rulebook clarifications on Friday forward of final weekend’s Mexico Grand Prix. Why was Max allowed to make that transfer, and can it go unpenalized sooner or later? The FIA agreed to convene a gathering with the drivers on the penultimate grand prix of the season, however drivers solely wanted to attend till Sunday to search out out the reply to that query.
On the very first nook Max bought a greater begin from second on the grid than polesitter Carlos Sainz, and used his place on the within of the primary nook to run a large exit and power Sainz onto the grass. The FIA often doesn’t penalize drivers for contact on the first nook, as a result of it’s hectic as all shit, nevertheless it was an egregious and recognizable bullshit transfer from Verstappen. There’s a rule within the books that requires drivers to permit area for a automobile overtaking on the skin of the nook, however Max is aware of he can get away with it at flip one.
Just a few laps later Sainz simply motored previous Verstappen and when Norris tried the identical transfer the next lap Max went full bonkers berserk mode, performing like a 12-year-old in a Forza on-line race. After a few corners of shut wheel-to-wheel motion, Max shoved Norris off the observe at flip 4, and despite this Norris exited the nook forward. At flip seven Max merely didn’t brake for the nook and took each automobiles off the observe to regain second place. In each situations Norris used his racing discretion to keep away from contact together with his Purple Bull rival, although each may have ended up in an enormous wad of a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} price of carbon fiber shards.
“I used to be forward the entire means by means of the nook. This man is harmful. It’s the identical as final time. I’ll be within the wall in a minute,” mentioned Norris.
The FIA stewards, after reviewing each incidents individually, leveraged twenty seconds of penalty time in opposition to Max, scuppering his race and costing him a number of factors within the title battle. The final eight days have been an embarrassing show of impatience and bullshit driving from the three-time champion, and I’m unsure the penalties are going to be sufficient to make Max suppose twice about doing the identical sooner or later. He’s been driving like this for his complete profession.
In every other skilled degree sport, this degree of player-on-player violence can be met with critical contempt from the governing physique. There’s precedent for banning a driver for a race, and it’s occurred this season, in reality. If a driver accumulates 12 factors on their license in a 12 month interval, they need to miss a Grand Prix as penance. Earlier this season Haas driver Kevin Magnussen acquired a ban from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for accruing too many factors. Max presently has simply six factors, regardless of a season marked by dive bombs and lower corners.
If the FIA weren’t clearly enjoying in Verstappen’s nook, he’d have much more penalty factors than he has. If his driving doesn’t change, I hope he’s handed sufficient penalty factors to get that one race ban. He deserves it and I don’t suppose it can sink in till he’s compelled out of a race.
