‘ARE WE FIVE YEARS OLD?’ – MAX VERSTAPPEN SNAPS BACK AFTER ‘WATCH OUR LANGUAGE’ WARNING

Max Verstappen branding his RB20 “f**ked” in the press conference led host Tom Clarkson to remind the F1 World Champion to watch his language.

Verstappen had a subdued race in Azerbaijan last weekend, with the reigning World Champion revealing he knew the car was “f**ked” right from the start of Q1.

Max Verstappen: I knew I was stuck with it

Red Bull’s RB20 appeared a more competitive beast in Baku, with Sergio Perez fighting in the top group as a contender for victory as the Mexican put in his strongest performance since the Chinese Grand Prix.

But Verstappen was much further back, unable to exploit the same performance potential in the Red Bull after trying out a setup gamble after the third practice which backfired on him.

Adjusting the car ahead of Q1 in a direction he believed would help, the changes inadvertently made the car worse – dooming him to a difficult weekend from there on out, due to parc ferme conditions coming into effect at the start of Q1.

“I don’t know, man, different setup,” he told media in Singapore, when asked about why Perez had had the upper hand on him all weekend.

“So, as soon as I went into qualifying, I knew the car was f**ked.”

Following a pregnant pause after this sentence, Verstappen continued: “I tried to optimise the car all the time, and this time it didn’t work out so I knew that I was stuck with it, and then you try to optimise it.

“But yeah, also, my run one in Q3 – that would have been enough for P3 in qualifying – hurt me. Then you start in the back of the top group.

“The balance was, of course, not there in the race, then you get stuck behind two cars in the middle of the race, so you kill your tyres.

“So you know, basically everything just went wrong from qualifying because the rules, of course, don’t allow you to change anything on the car. You’re stuck with it, and that’s what happened.”

Verstappen’s choice of language resulted in press conference host Tom Clarkson sternly reminding the Red Bull driver to “watch his language going forward” before moving on.

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Max Verstappen: The F-word isn’t even that bad, right?

Verstappen is well known for not holding back in his choice of language, particularly over team radio when in the heat of battle on track, and has previously said that the choice is there to not broadcast him if the commercial rights holder isn’t happy about his vocabulary.

Recently, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem made a request of the teams at an F1 Commission meeting to remind their drivers to watch their language, and, in an interview with Motorsport.com in the build-up to the Singapore weekend, re-iterated that desire.

“I mean, we have to differentiate between our sport – motorsport – and rap music,” Ben Sulayem said.

“We’re not rappers, you know. They say the F-word how many times per minute? We are not on that. That’s them and we are [us].”

Asked if the FIA could require FOM to limit the usage of team radio containing foul language in the TV broadcast, Ben Sulayem revealed this was already happening.

“We can and we are,” Ben Sulayem replied. “We are the ones who actually approved more [radio] talk [on the TV broadcast]. But we have rules, and the rules are there for the benefit of the sport and the rules are there to be policed and to be respected also.”

Asked for his thoughts on whether swearing needs policing, or whether people are just being “too sensitive”, Verstappen didn’t hold back in his response.

“I think you will swear anyway – if it’s not in this room, maybe somewhere else. Everyone swears,” he said.

“Some people a bit more than others. It also depends a bit on what language you speak.

“Of course, abuse is something else. But, yeah, I think a lot of things get broadcast nowadays where, in other sports, you don’t run around with a mic attached to you.

“I think a lot of people say a lot of bad things when they are full of adrenaline in other sports – it just doesn’t get picked up. Where here, probably for also entertainment purposes, things get sent out, and that’s why people can pick up on it, discuss it on social media, and you get all sorts of trouble.

“So I think it already just starts with not broadcasting it. I mean, if you don’t broadcast it, no one will know, only the team, but with that you can deal internally with these kind of things.

“But, yeah, it’s just probably a bit the world that we live in within the sport but also, in general, it seems like people are a bit more sensitive to stuff. Yeah, that’s how it goes.

“I mean, I guess the world is changing a bit, but I think it already just starts with not broadcasting it, or not giving the option for people to to hear it in general.

“Of course, there are a lot of apps where people can listen to radios and stuff – you have to probably limit this, or have a bit of a delay that you can censor out a few things – that will help a lot more than putting bans on drivers.”

Referring back to his earlier use of the F-word, with Clarkson having intervened to address him using that word, Verstappen wryly smiled.

“For example, I couldn’t even say the F word,” he said.

“I mean, it’s not even that bad, right? I mean, the car was not working. The car is ‘effed’, yeah, and then ‘excuse me for the language’, but come on, like, what are we?

“Five-year-olds, six-year-olds? Even if a five-year-old or six-year-old is watching, I mean, they will eventually swear anyway, even if the parents will not allow it.

“When they grow up, they will walk around with their friends and they will be swearing. So, you know, this is not changing anything.”

2024-09-19T12:55:06Z dg43tfdfdgfd