Who had it on the bingo card that would be bet on the fifth race of the season when Max Verstappen’s driving is scrutinized?
To be fair to Verstappen, it wasn’t wild or reckless, or anything that ultimately had an overly impact on the potential racial outcomes of another driver, but it was very important for his interpretation of the rules and the fact that both he and Red Bull found it particularly difficult by what they generally thought were accepting that the stewards had made the right call.
When Oscar Piastri got a better launch from the line than Verstappen, Paul Cessitter appeared to have closed over the door towards a turn in a relatively short period, but was not capable of doing so as McLaren pulled together.
Verstappen’s next best chance was to break through Piastri at the first corner, but once again the advantage Piastri gained in the first part of the start meant that Verstappen could claim to be far faster than the Australians and towards the first corner, he was ahead of the top.
Piastri nailed the brake points and used all the trucks. Verstappen had more speed and didn’t look like he could make horns, but all he was looking for was the ability to say his car was moving ahead at the top of Turn 1.
This is a classic Verstappen move, but it is also something that is still permitted due to the language of the steward-run driving standards guidelines. In this case, the stewards were rather clear from their perspective on this issue.
“Steward… We decided that car 81 had a front axle along the mirror of car 1 mirror 1 at least when trying to overtake car 1 inside. In fact, car 81 was with car 1 at the top.
“Based on the driver’s standards guidelines, it was a corner of car 81 and he was entitled to room.
“Then Car 1 left the truck and acquired a permanent advantage that was not returned. He stayed in front of Car 81 and tried to build on the advantage.”
The final result was a five-second penalty, and Verstappen tried to escape the road to deny it, but he had no pace and lost his lead to Piastri through the pit stop phase.
As an incident that took place on the opening lap, Verstappen had plenty of time to contemplate it for the rest of the race, and after finishing second with a clear stance, he returned to the grid. He felt very hard, but he had no intention of giving the FIA the opportunity to sanction him for potentially saying.
“I’m going to make it pretty short,” Verstappen said he would get out of the car soon. “Thank you to the fans here in Jeddah. It was a great weekend. I love the truck and the rest is what it is. I look forward to Miami.
And then he was gone. Even later in the FIA press conference, and in all the television interviews he had done before, he was not drawn into the case.
“The start happened, Turn 1 happened, and all of a sudden it was 50 laps,” he said. “It all got really fast, and the problem is that I can’t share my opinion because I might be punished too.
“I think it’s better not to talk about that.
Verstappen argued at one stage that his stance was about the twisted way of words and how social media responds to comments, but referenced a long list of potential fees that could be levelled to him by the Governing Body because of being overly important towards it.
That’s a flashback from last year, and the same can be said about the way Red Bull reacts.
“I thought it was very tough,” said team principal Christian Horner after bringing a stationary image to his press conference with him from Verstappen’s onboard camera.
“We didn’t accept this position because we didn’t believe he did the wrong thing. You can see clearly at the top of the corner. We believe Max is clearly ahead.
“If we gave up on that, the problem is that you are clearly running in dirty air too. You could have come back. The problem is that George is at risk.
The image Horner was referring to did not clearly indicate where the horn apex was, but it showed that the Piastri’s right front wheel was clearly ahead of Verstappen’s Wing Mirror. Horner effectively dug holes that tried to protect the driver. He once again brought up the guidelines and pointed to an image that actually proved him wrong.
“Both left at the same speed. They ran deep into Oscar’s corner and Max just can’t go away at this point. Maybe take a look at these rules again.
“We really felt we hadn’t done anything wrong. The first corner, the race incident, the two cars in and we don’t know where he should go. At this point, he just can’t go away.
“Oscar got off to a good start. Max got off to an average start. They’re done. But according to them, the wheels in front have to at least match the mirror. It’s very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very close.”
It should not be a really big topic as the penalty should not be so strongly opposed. Few people agreed to Red Bull’s perspective, but not the McLaren principal, noting, “I’ll let it go. He never made that corner.”
Verstappen’s reputation can precede him, and he appears to be undergoing extra scrutiny, and there are others who drive him to the letter of law, and should not be criticized for it.
In this case, his attempt to use his rules for his advantage was absolutely fine, but that didn’t go away. You can defend Verstappen and make the claim that he didn’t have time to analyze and review the incident when he spoke, but Horner and Red Bull clearly had it. Certainly the team principal knew he really had no argument.
However, there is such instability and uncertainty about Verstappen’s future, and even hinting that the driver might have been wrong, is completely out of the question. And we’re here again. There was a relatively small incident that was easily addressed at the time, and it turned into a point of contention that once again highlighted Verstappen’s driving.
This was a minor violation, but the response shows there is even more controversy as Verstappen’s title defense is under threat of increasing this year.