JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Max Verstappen believes he cannot fully share his opinions in Formula One for fear of being penalized or misconstrued on social media, and how “you can put yourself in trouble.”
Verstappen received a five-second time penalty for an incident at the first corner in Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah. The stewards judged that he left the track and gained an advantage to keep the lead ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, after the pair had gone wheel-to-wheel at the apex.
When Verstappen was informed of the penalty, he sarcastically called it “bloody lovely” over the radio. After serving his penalty, he dropped behind Piastri and ultimately lost the race by 2.8 seconds to the McLaren driver.
Verstappen refused to discuss the incident in the post-race news conference, initially joking: “The start happened. Turn 1 happened. And suddenly it was Lap 50. It just all went super fast.”
But the Dutchman then explained that he did not feel he could properly give his thoughts about what happened “because I might get penalized, also [for speaking out]. It’s better not to speak about it.”
Verstappen expanded on his thoughts by saying his stance “has to do with social media in general and how the world is,” and that “sometimes your words can be twisted” in a way that meant it was better for him not to talk.
“I think it’s just the world we live in,” Verstappen said. “You can’t share fully your opinion, because it’s not appreciated, apparently. Or people can’t handle the full truth. For me, honestly, it’s better if I don’t need to say too much. It also saves my time, because we (drivers) already have to do so much.
“It’s honestly just how everything is becoming; everyone is super-sensitive about everything. And of course, what we have currently, we cannot be critical anyway. So that’s fine. Less talking, even better for me.”
Last year, motorsport governing body the FIA hit Verstappen with a community service order after the Dutchman swore in a news conference in Singapore, which he branded “ridiculous” and protested by giving deliberately short answers in subsequent news conferences. He eventually completed the sanction by taking part in a grassroots racing event in Rwanda with the FIA in December.
Over the winter, the FIA then introduced new guidelines relating to “misconduct,” including sanctions that covered fines, points deductions, and possible race bans. Verstappen appeared to reference those misconduct rules when he was asked to clarify where his frustration in Jeddah was targeted.
“Look, I know that I cannot swear in here (the news conference). But at the same time, you cannot be critical or any kind of form that might harm or danger, or… let me get the (rule) sheet out, there’s a lot of lines,” Verstappen said.
“That’s why it’s better not to talk about it, because you can put yourself in trouble and I don’t think anyone wants that.”
In a post-race bulletin outlining Verstappen’s penalty for the incident with Piastri, the Jeddah stewards explained that Verstappen was required to give Piastri room at the corner because the McLaren driver had his car sufficiently alongside the Red Bull, as per F1’s driving standards guidelines used to adjudicate overtaking moves.
The stewards added that it would ordinarily have been a 10-second time penalty handed out, but they felt the fact that the incident occurred at Turn 1 on the opening lap made it a “mitigating circumstance.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner attended his post-race media briefing with a printed-out screenshot taken from Verstappen’s onboard camera feed displaying the incident.
“You can quite clearly see at the apex of the corner, we believe that Max is clearly ahead,” Horner said. “The rules of engagement, they discussed previously, and it was a very harsh decision.”
He added, “I can’t see how they got to that conclusion. They’ve both gone in at the same speed, Oscar’s run deep into the corner, Max can’t just disappear at this point in time, so perhaps these rules need re-looking at. I don’t know what happened to let them race on the first lap — that just seemed to have been abandoned.”
Asked why Red Bull did not instruct Verstappen to give up the position to Piastri before the stewards took action, Horner said the team believed he had done nothing wrong and did not want to risk being stuck in dirty air. Verstappen was also also leading the pack under safety car conditions following a lap one crash when the penalty was applied, meaning he had no chance to legally give Piastri the place back as overtaking is generally forbidden in such circumstances.
“I think what was a great shame today was that you can see our pace versus certainly the McLarens or all other cars in that first stint on the medium (tire), we were in good shape,” Horner said.
“We had to serve the five-second penalty and thereafter on the same basic [strategy] as Oscar, he finished 2.8 seconds behind. So, without that five-second penalty today, it would have been a win.
“But there’s always going to be a difference of opinion over a very marginal decision like that.”
Verstappen now sits third in the 2025 F1 drivers’ standings, 12 points behind Piastri. Red Bull is third in the constructors’ standings, 99 points behind McLaren.
(Top photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images)
