Verstappen questioning his F1 future over swearing punishment

Max Verstappen says the “silly” punishment levied for his discourse in the Singapore Grand Prix Thursday press conference makes him question his future in Formula 1.

The Dutchman was effectively handed community service by the FIA for swearing in Thursday’s pre-event press conference, having referred to his Red Bull as “f***ed” in his reflections of the Azerbaijan GP weekend.

This led him to protest in Saturday’s press conference by giving short, sometimes even one-word, answers and holding an impromptu media session outside of the media room at the circuit.

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He did the same after finishing second in Sunday’s race and, when asked if he may reconsider his future racing in F1 as a result of similar situations, Verstappen responded in the affirmative.

“For sure. Yeah. I mean, these kinds of things definitely decide my future as well,” Verstappen said.

“When you can’t be yourself, you have to deal with these kinds of silly things…I think now, I’m at a stage of my career that I don’t want to be dealing with this all the time. It’s really tiring.

“Of course it’s great to have success and win races, but once you have accomplished all that, winning championships and races, then you want to just have a good time as well.

“Everyone is pushing to the limit. Everyone in this battle, even at the back of the grid. But if you have to deal with all these kind of silly things: for me, that is not a way of continuing in the sport, that’s for sure.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Asked if the governing body would seriously risk losing a world champion due to the stringency of its rules over swearing in official sessions, Verstappen suggested that they might not take threats so seriously.

And, regarding Lewis Hamilton’s suggestion that Verstappen should simply avoid doing the community service punishment, he joked that “he’s also not the one being punished!”

“I don’t know how serious they will take that kind of stuff,” he added. “But for me at one point when it’s enough, it’s enough. And we’ll see. Everything will go on, I have no doubt.

“It’s not a problem because Formula 1 will go on without me, but it’s also not a problem for me. So it’s how it is.

“At the moment I’m not even thinking about that ruling. I’m just focused on the performance, what we are going to do for Austin and beyond.

“That’s what I’m thinking about, and for me, I shouldn’t waste any energy on it actually because it’s just very silly.”

Additional reporting by Ben Hunt and Ronald Vording