'Exaggerated And Ridiculous': FIA Went In Wrong Direction Says Marko

Thursday, 03 October 2024 at 12:00

Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko asserted FIA's reaction to Max Verstappen's swearing at a press conference was "exaggerated and ridiculous."

Red Bull Racing F1 driver Max Verstappen has a reputation for not mincing his words when it comes to answering questions from the media.

However, the FIA did not take that into consideration when it penalized Max Verstappen for using the F-word during the press conference ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.

To prove their point further, the FIA decided to award the Dutchman a more severe penalty (because it wasn't his first time swearing) and ordered him to "accomplish some work of public interest."

There has been considerable outrage from F1 drivers like, for example, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, and Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time World Champion even advised Verstappen not to serve the penalty. Red Bull's Helmut Marko shared his opinion in a column for SpeedWeek:

"The FIA also went in the wrong direction with the penalty for Max, who used an expletive in the press conference on Thursday that is heard so often in the racing world that it is practically part of everyday language. In addition, he used the word to describe an object, i.e. a car, and not a person."

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The Chairman of GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers' Association), Alexander Wurz, pointed out how Guenther Steiner was "glorified" for swearing in the F1 Netflix series, and Marko touched on the same point as well:

"I think that the yardstick is different when you look at what Günther Steiner did, for example, without any consequences. The whole thing is clearly exaggerated and ridiculous, I think we have completely different concerns."

Max Verstappen's reaction to the FIA penalty was to limit his answers at the FIA's official press conferences to a few words for every question, not elaborating on any of the topics. Marko approved of this as he added:

"But I thought Max's reaction was very good, the way he made it clear in the press conference what he thought about it, within the permitted limits - in very brief words."