Villeneuve Defends Herbert After Jos Verstappen's Attack

Saturday, 16 November 2024 at 13:00

Jacques Villeneuve defended Johny Herbert after Max Verstappen's father - Jos Verstappen accused the steward of having a bias against his son.

Former F1 driver and triple race winner Johny Herbert has faced criticism from Red Bull Racing and quite a few F1 fans as he has been one of the stewards who gave Max Verstappen the controversial 20-second penalty at the 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix.

On the other hand, it should also be noted that many F1 fans and former F1 drivers believed these penalties were justified. Martin Brundle even said that the triple World Champion was lucky not to get a drive-through penalty for one of the incidents.

Nevertheless, the 27-year-old's father, Jos Verstappen, suggested his son won't change anything about his driving just because of a couple of stewards "that didn't like him anyway."

Verstappen Sr didn't stop there, and he also suggested that FIA should investigate conflict of interest amongst its stewards.

Herbert defended himself, saying that while he thought Verstappen went over the line, his decisions were only based on the rule book and had nothing to do with his personal opinions.

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Former F1 driver and 1997 Champion Jacques Villeneuve expressed support for Herbert as he agreed he didn't see anything biased from Herbert. The Canadian told GpBlog:

"I didn't see anything bad from Herbert and as far as I can see the rules were followed in Mexico. They [the stewards] do the marshalling for free, so [Jos Verstappen] cannot ask a pundit to give up his job to do something for nothing."

Stewards have to step in and make a decision that will ultimately suit one team more than the other, and Villeneuve pointed out that these decisions will always upset someone at the end of the day.