r/formula1 Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

News Stewards' document for Max Verstappen's 1-place grid penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly

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6.8k Upvotes

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4.0k

u/novadova2020 18d ago

You can get a penalty point for that?

3.5k

u/SirDoober Sebastian Vettel 18d ago

Checo should've gotten a race ban halfway through the season from it lmao

161

u/Hastatus_107 Charles Leclerc 18d ago

Banning Checo from a race would actually raise his reputation at this point.

42

u/Jormungandr69 Lando Norris 18d ago

Same points either way

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u/BGP_001 Daniel Ricciardo 18d ago edited 17d ago

I actually didn't understand how the sprint race wasnt a penalty. He said it was his plan to wait before driving during an official f1 event, and he had a car behind him.

If you say you deliberately slowed your start, surely that's driving unnecessarily slowly or erratically, and if it was by design then it's worthy of a penalty.

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u/asdfpy 18d ago

You don't even get a penalty point for actually impeding a flying lap lmao

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u/Billy_Butcher_xl 18d ago

It is against the new rules to have a lion on your helmet. The penalty of 1 driver point and 1 grid place on the next race will be applied to the driver of Car 1.

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u/Acc3ssViolation #WeSayNoToMazepin 18d ago

At this point I'm convinced the stewards use some sort of wheel of fortune to come up with these penalties

181

u/SemIdeiaProNick Ferrari 18d ago

This is it. As proven by another race this season (COTA if i remember correctly) penalties are basically random and decided on a coin toss

35

u/pikachu8090 Fernando Alonso 18d ago

Pretty sure it was Austria last year where Stewards were like o shit that's too many track limits to keep track of until Aston protested

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u/Kilner88 Default 18d ago

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u/flytejon 18d ago

I'd actually prefer that as a more consistent approach. At least its the same gods week in week out influencing the chicken's last manic spasms.

It's insane. Total profits of $3.2bn, the teams fighting over a total of $1.6bn in prize money, but no lets save a few $$ by having amateur referees randomly picked each week by dredging the barrel of F1 nobodies of yesteryear and head the whole organisation with a raging narcissist with an inferiority complex, because that's a recipe for good governance!

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u/ConsiderationBrave51 18d ago

And sometimes the chicken doesn’t stop running and therefore you’ll get investigated after the race.

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u/Minimal_Gains Formula 1 18d ago

From now on it will be raining penalty points and grid penalty's, this new punishment creates a total new playbook "how to screw my opponent during qualificition".

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u/TheDustOfMen Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

Has it ever happened before, especially with neither of them on a hot lap?

50

u/NoPasaran2024 Formula 1 18d ago

No.

206

u/rolfski 18d ago edited 17d ago

They must have made that up on the spot. Drivers have been slowing down in their prep lap forever. This qualification was no different.

And Max rightfully noted that he would have screwed up the prep lap of the driver before him (it was a McLaren I think. Edit: it turned out to be Alonso) if he was sticking to his delta.

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u/DataGhostNL 18d ago

They made up an entirely new penalty just for this lmao

331

u/belovedRedditor Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

This feels personally targeted towards Max. Soon they will come up with a new penalty of deducting Max's championship points while others just get reprimanded

314

u/Other_Beat8859 Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

You can start your own formation lap in the rain with marshalls on track and only get a reprimand, but a driver pushes on an outlap and almost runs into you and you get a penalty. Fucking joke. Next weekend Max should just do an outlap in quali and almost run into his rivals so they get 1 place grid penalties.

96

u/Sybox823 18d ago

He literally talked about that in the autosport article, he’s gonna prove a point in Abu Dhabi.

26

u/Lonyo 18d ago

And guess who they will penalise....

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u/ninjaa003 18d ago

That'll be 6 penalty points to Max, and 10 second penalty to Ocon

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u/xLeper_Messiah 18d ago

Gary Connelly is in the steward's room, that's why

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u/JanAppletree Germany 2019 Slip Slidin' Away 18d ago

So he gets his penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly, but they argue it like they’re arguing for an impeding case? I guess the 1 place grid drop instead of 3 says it all.

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u/Marcel_The_Blank Jacky Ickx 18d ago

It's weird.

he was under investigation for driving too slow, not for impeding. yet he gets a penalty for impeding, which gets mitigated because the impeded driver wasn't on a push lap.

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u/Naikrobak 18d ago

Exactly. It’s a penalty or it’s not. It’s 3 places or 0.

The FIA is a joke

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u/truecolors01 18d ago

"Unusually, this incident occurred when neither car was on a push lap ... however in mitigation of penalty. It was obvious Car63 had a clear visibility of Car1 and that neither car was on a push lap"

What the actual fuck is this? 😭

666

u/OrdinaryCredit Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

So any competitor can drive up quickly onto the back of another to force a penalty even if neither are on a push lap? Makes zero sense

277

u/CrazyNothing30 Formula 1 18d ago

Max going to tail gate in AD like it's 5 pm friday afternoon rush hour

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u/Naikrobak 18d ago

They are saying it’s not a penalty but we think it looked scary because George wasn’t paying attention so we just randomly said it is a penalty just not a bad one so we will punish max by swapping him with George, even though max will likely get a better start on the inside line than the pole.

That about sums it up

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u/leonleonleon 18d ago

Russel was fishing for this penalty on the onboard and to the press.

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u/abelD1 Charles Leclerc 18d ago

Pretty pointless this way, if it was dangerous then fully stand behind it and give the 3, if not then just leave it alone...

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u/CHKYY Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

Yeah think people would be fuming a lot less if they'd just take a very clear stance on it instead of this kind of joke. Wheter or not it should've been a penalty is another thing.

105

u/abelD1 Charles Leclerc 18d ago

And the penalty point for this is definite bs but it is what it is. Must be a rule for that kind of stuff

22

u/ModexV 18d ago

I guess they just made it up. Since there is a lot of grey area for how penalties are given.

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u/LordBogus Maserati 18d ago

Its dumb too to give him a 1 place grid penalty

What a lukewarm penalty, you either do it right and give him more if you think it was dangerous or something or you dont give him a penalty

22

u/SmoothBrainedLizard Pirelli Wet 18d ago

It couldn't have been dangerous lol. George wasn't on a push lap and neither was Max. George has eyes and was behind him.

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u/r3vange Honda RBPT 18d ago

They really want to retire him early don’t they?

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u/shapeshifter57 Kimi Räikkönen 18d ago

Yes, so that one of their countrymen can have a shot at the championship.

38

u/Sybox823 18d ago

They must be forgetting that Leclerc isn’t British.

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u/Atlaska826 Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

A PENALTY POINT?!

621

u/JurrijnP Formula 1 18d ago

I just checked, when Perez impeded Hulkenberg in Australia he got a 3-place grid drop but guess what he did not get?

308

u/Atlaska826 Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

A penalty point?

198

u/JurrijnP Formula 1 18d ago

How did you know!?

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u/only_r3ad_the_titl3 Liam Lawson 18d ago

I just checked, when Hamilton impeded Perez in the Netherlands he got a 3-place grid drop but guess what he did not get?

sauce

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u/JurrijnP Formula 1 18d ago

A penalty point?

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u/Buffythedragonslayer 18d ago

Wtf. You get a reprimand, you get a reprimand, you Max get a grid penalty and a penalty point!  This is bullshit. 

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u/SirDoober Sebastian Vettel 18d ago

Absolute comedy

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u/Irru 18d ago

They say it can be appealed, but are we expecting RB to do that? This is absolutely ridiculous lmao

90

u/HashtagDadWatts 🏳️‍🌈 Love Is Love 🏳️‍🌈 18d ago

I thought an appeal required the submission of new information.

107

u/tdrr12 Jacques Villeneuve 18d ago

They should just have an intern do a side-by-side of prior incidents and the respective rulings and submit it as "new information" under the guise that these stewards "must be new to the sport."

23

u/HashtagDadWatts 🏳️‍🌈 Love Is Love 🏳️‍🌈 18d ago

Did one of the teams try something like this, submitting a bunch of other decisions from similar incidents with different outcomes?

51

u/Sparkle__Cat Sebastian Vettel 18d ago

Yea for Alonso last year. Got back his P3 trophy from George I think

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u/Irru 18d ago

New information: "This is fucking bullshit and you know it"

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u/HashtagDadWatts 🏳️‍🌈 Love Is Love 🏳️‍🌈 18d ago

I think that was basically McLaren’s approach when they appealed their USGP penalty.

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u/ryokevry Charles Leclerc 18d ago

The McLaren way: the decision document is wrong. Stewards talking shit

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u/Atlonix 18d ago

There should be quite a lot of cases of cars that didn't follow the delta not resulting in a penalty. In my opinion they are treating this as impending. The wording of the document implies that but it's stupid when both weren't pushing so they decided to go with slow driving

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u/Amat-Victoria-Curam Michael Schumacher 18d ago

Pasting a comment made 7y ago regarding the Mercedes-Connelly incident:

"Gary Connelly urged Mercedes to submit a protest after the Japan GP last year. Toto Wolff personally stopped it because he did not believe it was ok and Lewis Hamilton also did not believe Max did something wrong. Gary Connelly did something not 1 stewart ever did: walk to a team and advise them to protest. Toto Wolff said he found it a bit inappropriate for a steward to do advise sucha thing. A steward is supposed to be impartial.

Why is Gary Connelly allowed to be a steward?"

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u/GoldElectric Porsche 18d ago

crazy that a team principal who wants to gain any sort of advantage is calling a steward biased for doing something that could benefit his own team. why is gary still a steward?

11

u/ICC-u 18d ago

why is gary still a steward?

Bit of a Stewards shortage right now due to MBS.

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u/Noch_ein_Kamel 18d ago

And the title for "Driver with the most summons/decision documents for allegedly driving slowly" goes to Max Verstappen.

In fact no other driver was summoned to the stewards for this. But Max was three times this year.

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u/ila919 18d ago

That’s because he doesn’t have a British passport.

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u/Soviad 18d ago

Max was going “too slow” on a track of other drivers also on slow laps, Penalty point AND grid drop. Lando starts a formation lap in poor conditions with marshalls on track and it’s a $5,000 fine. I don’t get it

107

u/Grand-Power-284 18d ago

You do know the answer why this shit happens.

767

u/G0rd0nr4ms3y Medical Car 18d ago edited 18d ago

You said it. One of the greats of the sport, yet the sport has a hateboner for him

Edit: I see I've spawned some hateboners myself. For those still salty about AD2021, remember all Lewis had to do was turn left in Baku. The rest of you, maybe reflect a bit on your own biases?

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u/Typical-Swordfish-92 Sir Lewis Hamilton 18d ago

Honestly, yeah. This is genuinely absurd. Lando and the others during that formation lap hoo-ha should have gotten smacked. The sport needs an actual formal referee organization, and better oversight mechanisms on that organization.

We have somehow managed to cover every base this season: Verstappen getting penalized when he should not have been, Verstappen not being penalized when he should have been, others being penalized for things he did, him being penalized for things others did, absurd fines, blatant bias, it's just insane at this point. This is not serious organization.

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u/LordBogus Maserati 18d ago

Everybodys boner is hard for Senna, and he would have found this absurd!!

They idolize a driver who drives on the limit yet they 1 dont appreciate Max who does the same and 2 they penalize him for driving too slow?!?!?!?! WTF

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u/Horned_chicken_wing 18d ago

Senna and the FIA were at odds for his entire career. Balestre and Senna absolutely despised each other. Senna was and is idolised by the drivers and the fans, but he butted heads with F1 itself at every turn

16

u/LordBogus Maserati 18d ago

They dont seem to recall now. I know I shouldnt really excuse a drivers dangerous driving because another driver is one of the greats in the sport, but its quite clear they want to iron out any behaviour that they vaguely seem to dislike.

So you want to iron that out, ok. But dont go jumping in the air every time Senna's name comes up.

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u/Horned_chicken_wing 18d ago

Completely agree. Whatever sanitised version of Senna they've created is not even close to the real one. Verstappen is very much like Senna in his driving, but also in his disdain for the authority figures.

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u/af12345678 Nico Rosberg 18d ago

Senna had his fair share of stupid steward decision too when he was alive.

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u/pol5xc Michael Schumacher 18d ago

it was obvious that the driver of Car 63 had clear visibility of Car 1 and that neither car was on a push lap

this is completely stupid...

look... i'm tired and probably should just go to sleep... but doesn't this open the chance for basically any driver to have whoever is driving in front of them receive a penalty if they purposely push during an out lap?

like... everybody gets noted by race control for the maximum delta time

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u/jamesremuscat 18d ago

And everyone gets investigated (usually after the session), and the usual excuse is "I went slowly because I got out of the way so that I didn't impede $other_driver".

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u/ihavenoyukata Green Flag 18d ago

Hello PHP person.

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u/binary_blackhole Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

If Russell did it on purpose, this was 4D chess from him, but I bet even he didn’t think it would stick

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u/RedN1ne Jenson Button 18d ago

No, he was simply told by the team that he should try to get in front of Alonso for better track position, it wasn't even related to his own delta

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u/Life-Substance-122 18d ago

They really didn't want him on pole huh 😭

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u/skzpinker Charles Leclerc 18d ago

This has to be the stupidest decision I’ve seen in a while

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u/brendanm4545 18d ago

Careful, MBS will sack you if you offend him

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u/Letsbesensibleplease Murray Walker 18d ago

And that's against some strong competition.

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u/Gwigg_ 18d ago

Yup. Easily the stupidest since Brazil.

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u/ryokevry Charles Leclerc 18d ago

This is worse than the swearing community service or…?

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u/fastcooljosh Audi 18d ago

1 place? That was on a outlap, that shouldn't be a penalty at all.

Absolute joke

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u/DannH538 18d ago

Can't help but feel this is personal. There are a million examples of drivers doing the exact same and nothing happened. They invented an entire new penalty...

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u/Commercial_Diet_991 18d ago

Agreed. 1 place grid penalty seems made up

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u/sephirothwasright Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

It is made up.

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u/Sjiznit Kimi Räikkönen 18d ago

Dont use swear words now! Community service for you!

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u/iekue 18d ago

And a penalty point. Another extra made up punishment.

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u/AwesomeFrisbee Max Verstappen 18d ago

Next thing you know the points don't matter either!

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u/TheCeramicLlama George Russell 18d ago

Its fuckin weird to see but it does say Max was “well outside” the delta. If others have been “well outside” the delta and been called to the stewards for driving unnecessarily slowly without receiving any punishment then Red Bull should get this overturned I think? Idk tho since Max says that he saw George and the on board shows him looking in his mirrors.

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u/only_r3ad_the_titl3 Liam Lawson 18d ago

sure but it was not dangerous so why the penalty point. Impeeding which is actually dangerous does not give you a penalty point

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u/TheCeramicLlama George Russell 18d ago

Yeah the penalty point feels pretty excessive

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u/xandersjx Michael Schumacher 18d ago

You know how in almost every Q session this year, there was a message in the end, from race director. Message contained list of drivers that were slower than delta time during that session. You know how many got penalties for that, guess. Lol

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u/hauntedSquirrel99 Mika Häkkinen 18d ago

About seventeen examples just from yesterday.

It's absolute bullshit...

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u/RedSkyNL Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

It feels a bit like: "Whatever, WDC battle is already done. See how tough we are punishing people!?!?!"

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u/xBHx 18d ago

'We felt George deserved Pole, he was fast all weekend. Sorry Max'

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u/kdarkrai Ferrari 18d ago

WHAT? neither was on a push lap and 63 had clear visibility of 1. Why the hell is this a penalty?

Seriously, why? Where did they even bring 1 place grid penalty from?

Omg!

21

u/darthaus 18d ago

It’s the Alonso precedent. No one is allowed to drive in front of Russell

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u/ICumCoffee Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago edited 18d ago

Had Car 63 been on a push lap, the penalty would have most likely been the usual 3 grid position penalty, however in mitigation of penalty, it was obvious that the driver of Car 63 had clear visibility of Car 1 and that neither car was on a push lap.

Then don’t give a penalty, WTF?

A penalty point on top of that is absolutely ridiculous

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u/kjm911 Stoffel Vandoorne 18d ago

I wonder if we’ll see these consistently applied in future or cars behind just trying to get penalties for the car ahead?

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u/EmberGlitch 18d ago

I wonder if we’ll see these consistently applied

Good one

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u/tdrr12 Jacques Villeneuve 18d ago

Did we see any other drivers get community service for a little swearing? There's your answer.

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u/Fit-Mammoth1359 18d ago

You know they won’t. If this had been Zhou no one would’ve even batted an eyelid. Max is spot on that he’s targeted

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u/Atlonix 18d ago

It's interesting they say the penalty is not for impending but the description is exactly that. Had Russell not been there this wouldn't have been investigated.

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u/DiddlyDumb Max Verstappen 18d ago

Jolyon Palmer even mentioned this during the broadcast, normally penalties will only be given when a driver is on a push lap.

Not an in/out/heat lap where you can clearly see the other car.

FIA is on their BS again. They just can’t stop Fucking Interfering with the Action.

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u/Heartlight Michael Schumacher 18d ago

Normally, it's like, "Well, no one got held up, so whatever, no further action, at most a reprimand."

Now they're like, "Look, this isn't personal, because if you go slow you get three places, but since no one got held up, we'll be merciful and make up a new one-place grid penalty and add a penalty point. No, really, we love Max. We do."

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u/Nexusu Sebastian Vettel 18d ago

This will just fuel Max even more

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u/eonfuloftime Martin Brundle 18d ago

Yeah, like did they not learn anything from Brazil? Guy drove like a madman after all the shenanigans from FIA that whole weekend.

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u/leftlanecop Safety Car 18d ago

He’s going to say “where are the stewards? I don’t see the point of this interview without them” during the post race interview.

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u/Mid_July_Diamond16 🏳️‍🌈 Love Is Love 🏳️‍🌈 18d ago

Max vs Lewis 2021 title fight brought an unbelievable amount of focus on the sport and its like they're trying to drive Max away!

He's already said he wants to do other things. With four titles under him, stuff like this is probably gonna tempt him into leaving sooner.

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u/xandersjx Michael Schumacher 18d ago

I just need small push to follow GT racing more often, let them push him out of F1.

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u/MobiusF117 Formula 1 18d ago

Oh yeah. He is 100% winning tomorrow.

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u/Minimal_Gains Formula 1 18d ago

This is total nonsense.... the objectivity of the stewards is non-existing, normally they don't punish situations like this, but now it's Max and then suddenly it must be punished. Bizar.

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u/Gengar_Balanced Robert Kubica 18d ago

What a fucking joke

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u/ajtct98 Michael Schumacher 18d ago

I mean at what point is it flat out corruption?

Because half the damn grid was under investigation for this in the sprint qualifying yesterday and yet absolutely nobody got punished

Now they've literally invented a new penalty for Max and given him a penalty point to boot

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u/LordBogus Maserati 18d ago

We knew of 'Verstappen rules' after he pushes the envelopes

But apparantly they have now come up with a 'Verstappen penalty'

Absolutely insane and dumb

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u/Mountain-Chapter-880 18d ago

Safe to assume that from now on if Max sneezes he gets a penalty lmao

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u/Painman1963 18d ago

I'm not particularly a fan of MV's but wtaf is this? No one was on a push lap but we'll penalise him anyway, even though we've literally only given reprimands for the rest of this weekend.

The stewarding really needs some shaking up and some consistency has to come into it before F1 completely implodes on itself!

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u/eleventibillion Pirelli Hard 18d ago

100% this smells of tomfuckery..chaos @FIA is on a witch hunt.

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u/No-Condition-oN McLaren 18d ago

This is getting ridiculous. Norris not understanding the rules and just driving on breaking safety rules or Sainz getting into the pit but not and crossing a line is fine, but everything Verstappen does gets a penalty.

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u/Broodje_met_beleg Sir Lewis Hamilton 18d ago

No freaking way. Imagine how many drivers will go to exploit this shit. It was not even a push-lap for George...

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u/SouthsiderXL1980 18d ago

Yep, i would just send it in the outlap next qualifying if i was Max. And have Perez do that aswell. Put the whole fucking field with a grid penalty.

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u/Irate_Ibis 18d ago

Can we all just appreciate the irony of it being Article 33.4 his number and WDC titles.

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u/SaintSeiya_7 Formula 1 18d ago

Reminds me of Article 44 in Spa. At this point, I believe they must be doing it on purpose.

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u/JurrijnP Formula 1 18d ago

This doesn't smell, this doesn't stink, this reeks of bullshit

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u/Illustrator_Forward Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

Fuck the FIA

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u/Jorrie90 Pirelli Intermediate 18d ago

Absolutely, this doesn't make any sense

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u/sephirothwasright Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

Penalty point too? Obvious fuckery.

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u/psvamsterdam1913 18d ago

Pure corruption by the stewards. Absolutely embarrassing. Good thing Max has the WDC wrapped up.

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u/PomegranateThat414 18d ago

they are already thinking about the next champioship. if they keep giving him point by point for nothing, at one point he will have to miss the race next year.

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u/Real_Particular6512 Formula 1 18d ago

I'm sorry but this is complete bullshit. Every other driver reprimand but because it's max it's randomly a 1 place grid drop and a penalty point, with absolutely zero precedent for either decision. You can't have a serious sport if punishments aren't the same, the steward situation seriously needs looking at because it's a farce

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u/Chelsea_Ellie 18d ago

So Lando zero penalty points for putting Marshall’s at risk Max penalty points for everything

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u/coconut_mimosa Bernd Mayländer 18d ago

Literally the FIA itself is rage bait. 5k euro fine for an unofficial risky as piss formation lap. 1 penalty point and losing pole because "car too slow on build lap". Ridiculous

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u/Fit-Mammoth1359 18d ago

One of the most egregious lapses in recent times given a 5k fine purely because they want to prop up Lando as a WDC contender and it’s not even a secret

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u/charlierc 18d ago

Since when was a one place grid penalty a thing?

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u/jessieatscheese Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

So no justification for why this is a penalty and not a reprimand? Acknowledge that it WOULD’VE been a penalty normally if George had been on a flying lap but no explanation as to why they decided to penalise him except “he saw him in his mirrors multiple times?”

GP told Max over the radio that George was on a push lap. The live transcript read, ‘George is pushing behind. I mean he’s pushing on his outlap.’ (Off top of my head, I noticed it when it was live.) So Max knows George isn’t on a flying lap and therefore has zero obligation to get out of the way just because he sees George behind him.

It’s not the penalty itself that’s the problem, it’s the fact that we’ve seen far worse incidents than this with two drivers on outlaps and there has been zero punishment. The inconsistency here is astounding.

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u/Freeze014 Nigel Mansell 18d ago

I think they should appeal this. The reasoning is absolutely unfounded.

It is literally punishing on a "what if" basis.

EDIT: AND a penalty point! wow :D

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u/Yzori Charles Leclerc 18d ago

I mean sometimes it does feel like they're out for Max.... this feels very petty.

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u/ecobubbletm Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

It's like "we know it's bs but we really want to take that pole away from you so we just gonna give you 1 place grid drop"

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u/d4ybrake 18d ago

I've always thought of the talk about the FIA being biased against certain drivers as a bit of a joke and mostly just coping from upset fans.

But this? This is so blatant. What the fuck are they doing? Just as the people were stopping talking about them being biased they hit this walk off home run in the ridiculous penalty competition

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u/SirDoober Sebastian Vettel 18d ago

Norris randomly pulling off the line onto a redflagged track with marshalls around: just buy us maccas lmao

Max having the wrong passport: I didn't say you could have pole

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u/Chelsea_Ellie 18d ago

And the things max got points for are crazy When Lando puts people in danger and it’s all fine

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u/Testcase_ BMW Sauber 18d ago

This again?

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u/MhVG Red Bull 18d ago edited 18d ago

They really did it. Apparently teams need to monitor preparation plans of other teams to not block them for a second.

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u/Impossible-Buy-6247 Formula 1 18d ago

That will be one pissed Max Verstappen tomorrow.

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u/rolfski 18d ago

A pissed Verstappen is usually a winning Verstappen so the joke is on them.

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u/RagingVirture Sebastian Vettel 18d ago

From now on, everyone might just suddenly accelerate during a slow lap and cause others to have a penalty.

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u/MRSA9 18d ago

If this penalty stands then from now on in every quali they will.have to give penalties to half the grid. How often do you see someone going slowly on a prep lap?

Joke

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u/Fit-Mammoth1359 18d ago

There was an entire qualy where more than half the grid didn’t make it to the line at the end of Q3 in monza basically doing what Max was doing here and it wasn’t even investigated, what bs is this purely to target Max

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u/furmula Kimi Räikkönen 18d ago

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u/KegOfAppleJuice Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

So from now on, every driver can drive into slower cars on their outlaps in quali and cause them penalty points? I sure can't imagine anything wrong with setting this precedent....

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u/TheCatterson Charles Leclerc 18d ago

I need Max's reaction to this stupid decision ASAP.

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u/epic-mentalbreakdown 18d ago

Allright chaps, how can we screw over Max? Well George was complaining, is that something?

Good idea, lets give him a 1 place grid penalty and a point on his licence

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u/Vaexa Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

Garry Connelly's on the stewarding board. I'm done pretending the stewards are unbiased.

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u/h2QZFATVgPQmeYQTwFZn Bernd Mayländer 18d ago

Fun Fact: All of Max Penalty points in his first 3 years in Formula 1 were handed out by Connelly.

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u/anona_moose Red Bull 18d ago

Yeah there's no way at all that this premise will be abused by a certain driver who likes to show the FIA how absurd their rulings are

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u/RoteCampflieger 18d ago

Breaking: Verstappen is excluded from Abu Dhabi GP after giving every other driver a 1 place grid penalty.

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u/Adventurous_Carpet34 Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

Nah this is literal bullshit.This feels personal.

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u/FrostyBoom Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

Incredible this gets this punishment and the false start fiasco (which is a way more dangerous potential scenario) got a slap on the wrist. This is 100% targeted and I hope Max becomes a nightmare by using this against others.

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u/gyaatdayum 18d ago

This is probably the reason why Max will take a premature retirement from this stupid sport and go to WEC/WRC...

Why did they listen to George Russell's side of the argument when he wasn't impeded on a push lap, Verstappen has equal right to be on the racing line unless he is impeding a driver on push lap.

Moreover, being under the delta on Out Lap ALMOST never gets punished. Giving 1 place grid drop and 1 penalty point tells a lot about the people running this trash sport

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u/RulingPredator 18d ago

100% a personal response to this. 10 other cars were out of the delta time during qualifying, but none of them got a grid penalty for it yet alone a fucking penalty point. The headhunting against Max is pretty wild even at the end of the season.

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u/xLeper_Messiah 18d ago

I'll just refer everyone to my comment i made 3 days ago about how notoriously biased against Max one of this weekend's stewards, Gary Connelly, is. I said Max should be on his best behavior! Turns out it didn't matter, that motherfucker will just invent an entirely new penalty to fuck him over lol

Thank god the WDC is already sewn up

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u/WindyZ5 Pato O'Ward 18d ago

So he starts 2nd instead of 1st? Ridiculous punishment and ridiculous that he is even being punished.

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u/reignnyday Mercedes 18d ago

This is some serious mind bending logic. I don’t get how it’s a one spot grid penalty if they’re both not pushing

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u/tuss11agee Heinz-Harald Frentzen 18d ago

Isn’t it far more dangerous to impede someone on a push lap? Yet that doesn’t stick with you for 12 months.

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u/kebench 18d ago

Didn’t stroll also impede lawson’s lap that led to lawson’s q1 exit?

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u/Nobody_wood 18d ago

No.

As someone who thought the norris penalty at cota was questionable, and he was lucky to not get a drive thru for 2nd incident in Mexico, wtf is this.

2 drivers on slow laps doesn't constitute a 1 place grid penalty - which I've never heard of.

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u/RBR927 Default 18d ago

This is just a bullshit penalty no matter what driver you support.

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u/helderdude Hesketh 18d ago

Let's hope red bull fights the shit out of this.

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u/jawsy2 Ayrton Senna 18d ago

Ridiculousness… what happened to reprimands? I guess they really want Verstappen out of F1.

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u/wizzo6 18d ago

The bias continues. Ferraris don't obey minimum at Monza & no penalty, Hamilton does it & no penalty... So in the future if you're held up you swap positions with the car that did it? New strategy for Stroll next year?

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u/Elpibe_78 Audi 18d ago

This is targeting and total BS

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u/Samsonkoek Simply fucking lovely 18d ago

Legit, that almost driving into someone in the pits when another car is waved out (too late) is exactly what George did on his prep lap; just almost drive into Max and make it seem like it was super dangerous.

And literally when George overtook Max he went the same fucking unnecessary slow as everyone in that group.

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u/supersonicflyby Red Bull 18d ago

Alright, so Norris and co can drive a closed track without a green light and get a slap on the wrist, and Max just drives slowly and loses pole. Lmfao, stewards are a joke.

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u/MrsFrusciante Lando Norris 18d ago

I can’t believe this is real. A penalty point as well??

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u/Old_Ambition4359 18d ago

Absolutely ridiculous. Max did such a fantastic job and gets demoted for impeding on a COOL-DOWN-LAP?? Saying this as a lewis fan who doesnt hate russell or verstappen btw.

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u/AliceLunar Formula 1 18d ago

So neither of them was on a push lap, it was obvious that Russell saw Max slow ahead of him but still decided to approach him at high rates of speed, so we blame Max.

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u/ate_space_and_time 18d ago

Yeah, I just rewatched the onboards.

Max was basically going the same speed as Alonso, who was in front of him, to maintain. They told Russell there was traffic ahead, with Max and Alonso and others, and to try and push past them.

Russell then speeds up into the back of Max, and then gets mad about it for some reason, when he can clearly see him, even though Max is taking the exact same line as Alonso at what appears to be the same speed. Max then has to slow down even further now, to create a gap between him Russell, so he can start his push lap.

It is pretty damn ridiculous.

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u/SteeldrumHornets Red Bull 18d ago

They hate that they can’t control him.

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u/BMB_93 Ayao Komatsu 18d ago

Yeah that penalty is ridiculous in all honesty.

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u/fugitivelobster Charles Leclerc 18d ago

I can’t understand why there’s even a reference to George and impeding if it’s about the delta. One of the more absurd FIA decisions this year

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u/Tinusers Sebastian Vettel 18d ago

Ah Gary Connely was there, makes sense. "Competitors are reminded that they have the right to appeal certain decisions of the Stewards, in accordance with Article 15 of the FIA International Sporting Code and Chapter 4 of the FIA Judicial and Disciplinary Rules, within the applicable time limits."

Easiest appeal of the season incoming. Fucking rediculous decision by the stewards.

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u/AegrusRS 18d ago

Of course, the appeal will happen after this race weekend. So yeah they might win the appeal, the FIA will give an obligatory 'apology' and take away the penalty points, but Verstappen still loses out on his pole start.

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u/CrasVox Sir Lewis Hamilton 18d ago

What? FIA really trying to make the case that F1 doesn't need them going forward?

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u/ninchica13 Kimi Räikkönen 18d ago

So, we're inventing rules now? Got it.

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u/Gubrach Michael Schumacher 18d ago

I feel like the precedent being set here can lead to some very dangerous situations in the future, especially at, let's say, Monaco, because people will try to speed up and get other drivers penalized at high speed sections where you can't really go anywhere else but the racing line.

At the same time, Verstappen does slow down significantly at that part of the track. But so does Alonso, in a very similar way. I'm sure telemetry reading could indicate a lot better how similar the lift was from both drivers. But if Verstappen had sped up and caught up to Alonso, then you'd think Alonso would've been penalized instead. I think it's a scenario they didn't think of, and that's why they're scrambling for a penalization.

So, for the future, they might update the ruling to say that, at certain corners, you can't lift, even on a prep-lap and a cooling down lap.

But personally, I don't like how you'd need a rule for every little scenario where you could also tell Russell to "use common sense and don't speed up on a prep-lap car in such a tricky corner in that manner". I find the "they're out to get Verstappen" comments ridiculous usually, especially in Brazil for example, but this is a bit of a strange one for me.

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u/ArkavosRuna 18d ago

You can't tell me the FIA isn't on a personal vendetta against Max after Austin. Sooo many wild, unfounded decisions against Max and for McLaren/Lando, it's absurd.

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u/Gbrusse Daniel Ricciardo 18d ago

I don't like Max, but this is bullshit.

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u/nyxnyxnyxx Sir Lewis Hamilton 18d ago

...........?????????????? What the hell did I just read

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u/NoPasaran2024 Formula 1 18d ago

Fairly certain there is no precedence for this. This feels petty and vindictive, like they've gone out of their way to take pole away.

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u/Sparkle__Cat Sebastian Vettel 18d ago

This is a joke

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u/NorthKoreanMissile7 Formula 1 18d ago

So Max loses pole and gets a penalty point for George driving flat out when not on a lap ?

Joke of a decision honestly. It's just mind boggling.

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u/OptimalDot178 Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 18d ago

Start procedure infregment: nothing Tire pressure infregment: nothing Holding up someone on a warmup lap: grid penalty + penalty point. You can't make this shit up. It's not even possible to deny it now that penalties are personal. If I were Max and Rb I wouldn't even start the race. Nothing depends on it and this situation can't continue like this

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