Max Verstappen I was furious after receiving a community service order for throwing the F-bomb during a Formula 1 press conference.
The three-time world champion has been under a lot of pressure recently. Lando Norris Reduce the difference from the Million's Poet with the titleThe last thing he needs is an off-road distraction.
But that's exactly what he achieved, with Verstappen falling to his knees after two bad comments during the fifth pre-season for the showpiece.Singapore Grand Prix press conference.
Asked how his Red Bull performed in the last race, the Dutchman said without a doubt: “I knew the car was broken.”
It happened on the same day that FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem took over. Ask about drivers who use less soothing language. During the bullfighting weekend, we ask you to post comments on everything on the net.
But Formula 1's governing body appears to be taking the new initiative seriously, with Verstappen instructed to report his inappropriate language to the stewards at the sixth GP before receiving an inappropriate penalty.
“It is the FIA's policy to ensure that the language used in public forums, such as press conferences, is generally directed to all audiences and broadcast programmes,” the statement said.
“Max Verstappen uses language that is generally considered 'vulgar or coarse' or may 'cause offence' and is not considered appropriate for transmission.”
It was stressed that such a violation generally justifies a fine, but since the issue had been raised before and competitors had been made aware of it, the commissioners would decide on a higher penalty than before and that Verstappen was “forced to do some work in the public interest.”
In fact, the 26-year-old now has to do some community service to the FIA, having received a similar sanction in 2018, after employing Esteban Ocon on the track following the pair's crash in Brazil.
Verstappen was careful not to criticise the FIA or the commissioners directly, but he was clearly angry at being penalised, saying, as quoted by De Telegraaf: “It would probably be better if he didn’t say anything about it. Because whatever I say or what he says about it is really not worth paying attention to.”
“This is all weird.” Next time, don’t ask me anything else about the printing community and then we can tell our story here.
“Do I know anything personal?” I don’t like this and I don’t want to waste my energy on this.
As for what his community service might mean, Verstappen added: “Maybe you'll have to show up at something, maybe with a laptop. A conference or something like that…”
As for on-track duties, Red Bull are once again behind the pace of rivals McLaren and Ferrari in Singapore, with Verstappen 1.2s slower than Norris in our sixth-placed train.
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