Max Verstappen is unmoved being on 11 penalty points, as George Russell was surprised by the Dutchman’s social media post after Barcelona.
Red Bull’s Verstappen didn’t say much after the grand prix in Barcelona, but he shared a post on his social media where he more or less accepted that the incident shouldn’t have happened. It was unusual from the Dutchman, which even surprised Mercedes’ Russell.
The acceptance or not, Verstappen is on 11 penalty points and is on the brink of a race ban. He has two races until June 30 for first cut on points. But the Dutchman isn’t to change how he races. It is not ideal being on a brink of a race ban, but it what he has to get through.
“No, I mean back to having a little bit of jet lag, but besides that, no, nothing changes,” said Verstappen. [And] no [my approach will not change]. [With the social media post, I was] sharing my view of things, how I thought that race panned out, actually not ideal for me. But then that was my statement, and then I went back to enjoy my day.
“I didn’t say much after the race. I think it is quite clear, I got penalised for it, so that speaks for itself. No, also not, I mean it is what it is, I was on eight points before, now on 11. I mean, I cannot just back out of everything, I’m just going to race like I always do, I trust myself. I don’t need to go into that to be honest. I mean, what is fair? Is it fair that I’m on 11 points?
“I don’t know, but at the same time, life is not fair if you look at it like that. I don’t worry about it, I just come here to race and I’ll always race hard, race how I think I should race, and then we go onto the next race. It’s difficult to say why or how exactly. I think it was also just the communication [with team] with letting the car by. That was already not correct from my side.
“And if you look at the onboards, we should have just continued when I first got that call. And then just the whole end of that race was quite frustrating for us because up to then we actually had a good race. We did the right strategy for our car and we at least put a bit of pressure on McLaren at a race where they were again very fast compared to everyone else. But just a frustrating end.
It’s just like I said, a very frustrating few laps in a row, I get driven into in a straight, almost crashed already with the Hard tyres, then get driven into at Turn 1, then they tell me I have to give the place back, like that makes no sense, so a lot of things that came together. It was a misjudgement, clearly, in the corner. But I don’t need to go into full detail of why, how and what, everyone makes mistakes in life, everyone learns from them and you just move on.
“Yes, we are trying to of course handle that [communication with the team] better in the future. At the end of the day, you can sit here and talk about the whole race in Barcelona, but I am not really interested, we have discussed everything and we just move on. Not ideal [to have a ban on my head]. I’m not here, of course, to try to get a ban.
“Maybe for you, not for me. I don’t think about it. Yeah, but again, even if they do, it’s not in my interest. I’ll race how I want to race, it’s not going to change anything,” summed up Verstappen, who acknowledged meeting Russell at the Nice airport. “Yeah, very random actually, all good,” he said.
The Brit elaborated a bit more meeting Verstappen but they did not chat about Barcelona. It was more on the personal level. As noted above, Russell was surprised by the Dutchman’s admission, but the Mercedes driver did not press as much since he gained from it.
He still wishes to think it was not intentional hitting. “I was a bit surprised to see him taking responsibility because it was quite unlike him,” said Russell to media. “We actually bumped into each other at the airport a few days ago, but yeah, we didn’t even chat about it. He was there with his family and his newborn, chatting about how that was going.
“He was busy folding the pram and trying to get it through the security scanner. So, look, there’s nothing from my side I need to talk about. Had I been taken out of the race, I’d be feeling very differently for sure, but ultimately his actions benefitted me, cost him, and I should say thanks. I want to believe that he didn’t intentionally try to crash into me, because that would be pretty bonkers.
“I think he just tried to show who was boss and put his elbows out and just got it wrong. So, yeah, I think anything more of a penalty than what he received, I do think would have been a bit much, but it all depends if it was intentional or not ultimately. Knowing him as I do, he’ll probably drive even more aggressively so he can have a weekend off at home. I don’t know. So, yeah, let’s hope so.”
When asked about the driving guidelines and if it has become too robotic to follow, Russell didn’t think it was like that. He elaborated on the move and reckoned Red Bull did the right thing to swap. “Racing is fluid, you never going to be able to have a ruling or guideline that fits the bill for every single scenario,” he said. “Max and my move…when I lunged him, there’s a word in the guideline that says if you are in control or out of control, now what’s in control?
“I was sliding a little bit but any driver slides the car all the time and he is in control, Barcelona is low grip and the car is moving around you throughout the whole lap and you are in control, so it was lower risk thing for Red Bull to do, just swap the positions, maybe they would have risked it and probably get away with it but when you got to make such a judgment call in the moment, I think they did the right thing, but I personally think it is working well, I can’t think of any penalties that has been put out this year that has been far from correct.”
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Here’s Max Verstappen on social media
