Unnecessary From FIA To 'Humiliate' Verstappen Says Schumacher
F1Thursday, 26 September 2024 at 10:00
Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher shared his opinion on the conflict between FIA and Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen.
The triple World Champion Max Verstappen has received a penalty from FIA (F1's regulatory body) following Thursday's press conference ahead of the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix weekend, where he used an F-word.
As opposed to previous penalties for similar incidents, which would have been either warnings or fines, the FIA decided on a more severe punishment and ordered Verstappen to "accomplish some work of public interest."
As you might know by now, the Dutchman couldn't let that slide and decided to fight back. His response? While he must attend the FIA conferences, he won't give any meaningful, elaborate answers to the questions.
Verstappen already did this during the post-qualifying, post-race press conference. What's more, he has support from other drivers, such as Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris.
The triple World Champion also warned that "silly things" like the FIA penalty only push him closer to retiring from Formula 1. Speaking to Sky Sports Germany, former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher suggested he wouldn't be surprised to see the Red Bull F1 driver leave.
"Max is independent, has earned enough money and said himself earlier that he will not always drive Formula 1, so I do not rule it out."
"There is just a lot going on right now. The car is bad, the team has a conflict, and Newey is gone."
Ever since Adrian Newey left the team, Red Bull Racing has also lost key people like sporting director Jonathan Wheatley (who heads to Audi) and head of race strategy Will Courtenay (who will join McLaren).
While there certainly is more than one factor contributing to Verstappen's decision whether or not to leave F1, Schumacher added that the FIA should have handled the swearing penalty differently.
"If you want to do this, you have to go to the union and explain. But to humiliate Max like that. Just a warning would have been enough, I think."
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