Verstappen Questions Decision To Check Only One Of Team's Cars Amid Hamilton & Leclerc DQ

Saturday, 28 October 2023 at 11:30

Updated at Saturday, 28 October 2023 at 16:01

Red Bull F1 driver Max Verstappen commented on the recent disqualification process after the 2023 United States Grand Prix.

During the 2023 United States Grand Prix, we have seen the first disqualification in two years. What is more, it was two cars from different teams that got disqualified.

Lewis Hamilton on Mercedes and Charles Leclerc on Ferrari. The problem was essentially that these two teams ran their cars too low, and consequently, the plank on their floors was worn down more than the rules allowed.

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During the conference ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix, Max Verstappen shared his opinion on the situation and explained he didn't think anybody would do it on purpose.

"I don’t think anyone does it on purpose. It’s just even more because of this sprint format that you only have one practice session where you try to nail everything and once you are in the wrong, there’s nothing you can do."

While we have seen some cheating from the teams in the past, it is unimaginable that a team in Formula One would try and cheat nowadays as they also represent bigger brands.

"But the thought process from every team is no one wants to be illegal, so no one sets up their car to be illegal."

There are random checks after each race performed on some of the cars. However, the problem is there are just too many things to check and it is quite a lengthy process.

"Then, of course, you have these random checks that get carried out and sometimes it’s the top four, sometimes it’s in the middle of the field, the back, that’s just how it goes, you can’t check every car for every single part of the car, otherwise we need 100 more people to do this kind of thing."

On the other hand, Verstappen thinks other cars should have been checked as well when it was discovered that two out of the four cars checked did not meet the rules.

"When you check one car of the team and it’s illegal, then I think you should check the other one as well. That’s for me, the only thing. Because otherwise you DQ one, then the other one moves up one position where normally you always run quite similar set-ups."