FIA risks F1 CHAOS in hypocritical new Max Verstappen battle

Max Verstappen faced one of the toughest race days of his Formula 1 career so far on Sunday, toiling in the searing hot streets of Singapore at the wheel of an increasingly substandard Red Bull car, attempting to limit the damage done to his championship lead by rival Lando Norris.

Norris’ McLaren has been the consistently quicker car since the Miami Grand Prix in May, and the papaya machine was imperious at the Marina Bay Circuit this time around, with the Brit eventually winning from pole by more than 20 seconds after leading every single lap.

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An impressive second-place finish for Verstappen will have tempered the disappointment of Norris’ win to a degree, but the Dutchman’s mood throughout the weekend was dominated by a new, tumultuous battle of a very different nature.

Following a pre-race weekend press conference on Thursday in which Verstappen referred to the performance of his RB20 car at the previous round in Azerbaijan using an expletive, the FIA issued him a punishment requiring him to "accomplish some work of public interest". A kind of community service punishment for swearing, essentially.

The decision led to ridicule from other drivers, criticism from the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association which serves as a union for F1 racers, and ceaseless scorn from Verstappen himself.

The 26-year-old responded to the charge by refusing to co-operate with FIA media duties during the rest of the weekend, delivering one or two word replies to questions from reporters in official press conferences and hosting impromptu media sessions of his own in the paddock away from the FIA’s influence.

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How did Verstappen react to his punishment for swearing in Singapore?

"There is of course no desire to give long answers there when you get treated like that," Verstappen told the press in the paddock, explaining his decision to make a mockery of the FIA’s media procedures.

"I never really felt like I had a bad relationship with them. So for me it was just quite straightforward, I know I have to answer [in the news conference] but it doesn’t say how long you have to answer for."

Verstappen’s brief, blunt replies in those press conferences were with met chuckles from fellow drivers including Norris, his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, and long-time rival Lewis Hamilton. Norris and Hamilton both made clear that they vehemently disagreed with Verstappen’s punishment, with Hamilton adding that he hopes Verstappen will not abide by the community service ruling.

Verstappen’s ire centred around his belief that he was punished for showing emotion.

"If you can’t really be yourself to the fullest, then it’s better not to speak," Verstappen said. "But that’s what no one wants because then you become a robot and that’s not how you should be going about it in the sport. You should be able to show emotions in a way. That’s what racing is about.”

Since its takeover by Liberty Media in 2017, and through initiatives like the Drive to Survive Netflix series, much closer social media access, and a greater focus on emotional storytelling, F1 has earned enormous success by marketing itself on the personalities of its biggest stars.

That includes celebrating them in their most glorious moments, and pushing cameras in their faces to capture their reaction to their lowest ebbs. The racing may still be the fundamental basis of the product but the joy, the gossip and the outbursts are an increasingly integral part of the show which F1 is selling.

Verstappen has crossed the line with his tirades in the past, including at the Hungarian Grand Prix earlier this year when he repeatedly lambasted his own team with a string of profanities, but to chastise him for a throwaway jibe in a press conference which was directed at nobody in particular, he argued, was petty and entirely needless.

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Could Verstappen leave F1 over swearing debacle?

F1 and the FIA have been at odds over a plethora of matters in recent years and it is important to note that it is the latter, not the former, which has decided to turn this non-issue into a public battle with the leading driver in the field.

Verstappen himself, having already openly discussed the possibility of moving on from F1 at some point in the near future if he does not feel he is garnering enough enjoyment from continuing to participate, said the matter could have an impact of his future.

Even ignoring the sheer hypocrisy of demanding both constant expressiveness and total vocabulary restraint from young men performing in such an ultra-competitive, highly-pressurised environment, the fact that Verstappen and his fellow drivers have treated the decision with such derision should make the FIA reconsider whether this is really a fight worth waging.

If they opt to continue with the clampdown, then the wedge between F1 and the FIA could be driven even deeper and lead to chaos far beyond the use of a simple swear word.

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