Verstappen Answers Whether He Plans To Continue FIA Protest

Friday, 18 October 2024 at 14:00

Max Verstappen issued an update on whether he plans to continue with the FIA protest that he started during the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.

After receiving a penalty of having to "accomplish some work of a public interest" for using an F-word during the the official FIA press conference ahead of the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, Max Verstappen started his protest.

The Red Bull Racing F1 driver decided he would no longer normally answer all the questions at the official FIA press conferences and started giving only non-meaningful short answers without any elaborations.

Also, the triple World Champion then held his own mini-conference to properly address all the questions from the media outside of the official press conference room.

When asked in Austin on Thursday ahead of the 2024 United States Grand Prix race weekend (that comes after a one-month break) whether he plans to continue his protest, Max Verstappen told the media:

"I haven't heard anything (from the FIA), so for me, it doesn't change anything. I prefer, of course, to talk less, so it's fine anyway for me."

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When the Dutchman was asked whether he would like to discuss the whole issue with the president of FIA - Mohammed Ben Sulayem, he replied:

"I am always open for a chat. But from my side it is not that I am the one who has to reach out. I just live my life. I just continue, nothing changes."

"This particular scenario, yes, it's very unnecessary. Of course, I know you can't generally swear, but it's more about when you insult someone."

One of the stewards who gave Verstappen this penalty, Johny Herbert, recently spoke about the whole process, and one of the points that he made was that he would not want his five-year-old grandchild listening to such offensive language. The 27-year-old has also something to say to these comments:

"Then you hear comments, like: 'Yeah, but you don't want kids seeing that.' But when I was five years old, I never watched a press conference in my life anyway."

"And at school, you hear way worse things than that. Because you grow up with kids and you're a bit of a rebel, so you always say bad stuff. That's just how life is."