The four-time Formula 1 world champion has been the best driver over the last few seasons after taking the throne away from Lewis Hamilton. Max Verstappen has always been known as a very focused and committed driver since his Formula 1 arrival a decade ago, but also sometimes overly emotional.
While several of his moves are seen as gutsy and brave, others can be inappropriate and damaging. While moves of the latter type don't happen nearly as often, they have occurred enough to the point where they are still not surprising.
The Dutch driver’s recent incident with George Russell in Barcelona goes to show how normalized these antics have become. Verstappen intentionally hit Russell after being incorrectly told by his team to let the British driver by and was slapped with a 10-second time penalty. It was a slap on the wrist that only uncovers a much bigger problem in the sport.
The FIA cannot shame the center of the sport
Verstappen is known to be a rather vocal driver on the radio when it comes to his responses to particular incidents. Several moments have generated an overly dramatic and unwarranted response from those on the outside, even if some are justified. However, they have occurred so regularly at this point that they are no longer seen as a big deal, even by the FIA.
Now that an actually significant (and not completely overblown) issue has occurred, Verstappen was hit with the same basic penalty.
While drivers in Monaco received drive-through penalties for intentionally overtaking other drivers off the race track, the FIA handed the face of the sport something far less for intentionally hitting a driver on the race track, which is a much bigger safety issue.
Yes, Verstappen was also handed three more penalty points, bringing his total to 11, so the FIA might suggest that their penalty system is working, given the fact that Verstappen is just one point away from a race ban. However, that is almost meaningless. If he has clean races in Canada and Austria, two of those 11 points are due to expire at the end of June.
The FIA choosing not to address this particular incident further or lay out a standard for drivers moving forward only goes to show how little Verstappen’s mistakes are cared about at this point. If drivers can do as they please on track without much consequence, it hurts the integrity of the sport as we know it. Perhaps it will be addressed at the annual FIA Conference in Macau this week.