Max Verstappen has revealed whether he will take an absence from the 2025 Formula 1 season after he made a tongue-in-cheek FIA suspension claim.
The FIA announced their clampdown on the use of foul-language in 2024, rules that Verstappen immediately broke after he swore in a press conference at the Singapore GP, and therefore had to partake in community service as a punishment.
These new rules have already been implemented in 2025 at the World Rally Championship, where Adrien Fourmaux was fined €10,000 for swearing during a television broadcast.
Max Verstappen received the FIA's first punishment for swearingThe FIA introduced further punishments for swearing in 2025
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The pair's first child together will be born during the 2025 season, and Verstappen has been asked whether he will miss a few races when his child arrives.
“I could of course skip a race, but I won’t,” Max Verstappen told the media ahead of the F1 75 event in London.
“That’s not part of being a racing driver. So it could be that I won’t be there. But we’ll see when the birth gets closer.”
Max Verstappen and Kelly Piquet welcome their first child together in 2025
Verstappen elaborated on why he would not miss any races, and even delivered a cheeky jibe directed at the FIA’s swearing ban during his reasoning.
“It’s possible, but I won’t do it," Verstappen added separately to Algemeen Dagblad. “This is just part of being a Formula 1 driver. If it happens, it happens. I can’t do anything about it.
“Unfortunately, Formula 1 drivers don’t get free time like that, but at the same time, I’m not the one who gives birth. Or maybe I will be suspended because I have too many penalty points for swearing [laughs]."