Max Verstappen has long been the heel of the Formula 1 paddock, and in the latter half of the 2024 season it seems young Lando Norris is playing the face. Unlike a rehearsed professional wrestling bout on a padded ring, Max Verstappen’s aggressive moves are happening at a hundred miles per hour on asphalt, and instead of a three pound chair-to-the-face, Verstappen’s weapon of choice is his 1,800 pound Red Bull RB20. Week in and week out the defending F1 champion pushes his rivals beyond the boundaries of the track, and the message is clear. “If you don’t let me have this position, you’re ending up in that wall.”
After the total shitshow that was the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin earlier this month, which saw Verstappen push Norris off the track and by the arcane rulebook somehow Norris received a penalty for it, drivers demanded rulebook clarifications on Friday ahead of last weekend’s Mexico Grand Prix. Why was Max allowed to make that move, and will it go unpenalized in the future? The FIA agreed to convene a meeting with the drivers at the penultimate grand prix of the season, but drivers only needed to wait until Sunday to find out the answer to that question.
At the very first corner Max got a better start from second on the grid than polesitter Carlos Sainz, and used his position on the inside of the first corner to run a wide exit and force Sainz onto the grass. The FIA usually doesn’t penalize drivers for contact at the first corner, because it’s hectic as all shit, but it was an egregious and recognizable bullshit move from Verstappen. There is a rule in the books that requires drivers to allow space for a car overtaking on the outside of the corner, but Max knows he can get away with it at turn one.
A few laps later Sainz easily motored past Verstappen and when Norris tried the same move the following lap Max went full bonkers berserk mode, acting like a 12-year-old in a Forza online race. After a couple of corners of close wheel-to-wheel action, Max shoved Norris off the track at turn four, and in spite of this Norris exited the corner ahead. At turn seven Max simply did not brake for the corner and took both cars off the track to regain second position. In both instances Norris used his racing discretion to avoid contact with his Red Bull rival, though both could have ended up in a massive wad of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of carbon fiber shards.
“I was ahead the whole way through the corner. This guy is dangerous. It’s the same as last time. I’ll be in the wall in a minute,” said Norris.
The FIA stewards, after reviewing both incidents separately, leveraged twenty seconds of penalty time against Max, scuppering his race and costing him several points in the title fight. The last eight days have been an embarrassing display of impatience and bullshit driving from the three-time champion, and I’m not sure the penalties are going to be enough to make Max think twice about doing the same in the future. He’s been driving like this for his entire career.
In any other professional level sport, this level of player-on-player violence would be met with serious contempt from the governing body. There is precedent for banning a driver for a race, and it’s happened this season, in fact. If a driver accumulates 12 points on their license in a 12 month period, they have to miss a Grand Prix as penance. Earlier this season Haas driver Kevin Magnussen received a ban from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for accruing too many points. Max currently has just six points, despite a season marked by dive bombs and cut corners.
If the FIA weren’t obviously playing in Verstappen’s corner, he’d have far more penalty points than he has. If his driving doesn’t change, I hope he’s handed enough penalty points to get that one race ban. He deserves it and I don’t think it will sink in until he’s forced out of a race.