Max Verstappen has joked that he would shatter F1’s racing guidelines if he were a manager.
Oscar Piastri’s controversial race-ruining 10-second time penalty in Brazil has once again put the subject of F1’s racing guidelines in the spotlight.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who was wiped out in the three-way collision that also involved Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes, also defended Piastri and felt the penalty against the championship contender was harsh.
Ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, four-time world champion Verstappen made his position on the current guidelines clear.
“I don’t necessarily like our rules, but I just follow them as written,” the Red Bull driver told Dutch media.
Asked if he thought F1 had become too complex, Verstappen said: “I would say yes. The problem is that the more rules you make, the harder it becomes to make the rules yourself.”
“At the end of the day, it’s not even about the stewards, because they’re just following the rulebook. They see something with their own eyes and form an opinion, but when they look at the rules, it might be different again.”
“So what do you apply? Stewards are in a difficult position. I experienced it myself during a wonderful day in Marrakech. The stewards were very kind, but ultimately you are bound by that rulebook.
“It can be very difficult to make the right decisions.”
Verstappen continued: “I think Carlos and George (Russell) have already made all the preparations for that, so I’ll just sit back and relax.”
“I would…” he joked, imitating the motion of shredding documents.
What do other drivers think?
Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) director Carlos Sainz was particularly vocal that F1 needed to review its racing guidelines, with the Williams driver condemning Piastri’s penalty as “unacceptable”.
“Anyone who has actually raced a race car knows that he couldn’t have done anything to avoid the accident there and still got away with a 10-second penalty,” the Spaniard said at media day in Las Vegas. “That’s something I don’t understand.
“I couldn’t understand the penalty at Zandvoort. I couldn’t understand why Ollie got the penalty when they collided at Monza. He didn’t deserve that penalty, so I told him right after the race. I couldn’t understand how he missed 10 seconds in Austin. And the situation in Brazil.”
“There have been not one, but several events this year that have taken me far from what sports should be.”
Meanwhile, fellow GPDA director George Russell believes the situation would improve with a permanent steward.
“There’s a bit of an expression, or a perception, that if your car locks up, it’s considered out of control,” said the Mercedes driver.
“This corner in Brazil is completely cambered, the inside of the car is always unloaded and the tires are not evenly on the ground, so the tires lock up, but we are completely in control.
“That’s why we need guidelines and why we have to treat every corner, every circuit, every incident completely differently.”