Max Verstappen has been praised for his “unbelievable” professionalism and maturity in the aftermath of his controversial penalty at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Red Bull driver Verstappen was awarded a five-second penalty for getting the advantage while fighting Oscar Piastri for the lead at the start of the race.
Dutchman offered a penalty during the pit stop and rejoined the track in the second position behind Piastri, failing to close the gap with McLaren’s rivals.
While clearly pissed off by the steward’s decision, the four-time Formula 1 champions remained nervous about sanctions in the post-race interview, avoiding all questions from the media.
He argued that “people cannot deal with the perfect truth,” and that there is a risk that his words would be “twisted” or interpreted in a different way.
This response won him praise from Formula 1 critic Peter Windsor.
“I was worried that when he crossed the line he would say, ‘It got me away, I should have won that race’, but he didn’t.”
“He was incredibly professional and like Jackie Stewart, but that was very impressive.
“It’s a big deal that Max is this mature now, this intelligent and not hearing all the chatty noises out there.”
He added:
“All that can do is that Max can. He expressed himself very clearly and thought he did the right thing on Turn 1 as a racing driver.
Windsor describes the penalty as generous, emphasizing that the rules for wheel-to-wheel racing are sometimes unclear. In this case, Polesitter Verstappen could not ask him to regain his position as Piastri had not led the race prior to the incident.
However, Verstappen was wrong in Turn 1, but the former Williams team manager said he was typical of an F1 driver who would not accept responsibility for the incident.
“He’s a racing driver and he made passes and got the lead the way he tried,” Windsor explained.
“Of course, he never says I made a big mistake. He’s Max Verstappen. Why would he admit that it was his fault more than Oscar Piastri. They’re racing drivers.
“Max was absolutely right when he crossed the line. “It was what it was, what it was, something positive from the race, we finished second, got the pole, the car was way better than we thought, thank a lot of people and thank everyone.”
“You don’t want to frustrate the FIA to know that sometimes they’re very difficult. You just want to be quiet and calm, and he said what he said on the radio at the time.