'Wrong passport': Max Verstappen suggests discrimination amid Mexico Grand Prix saga
Three-time defending Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen said he had the "wrong passport" amid criticism of his racing tactics at the Mexico City Grand Prix last weekend.
The Red Bull driver saw his championship lead over McLaren's Lando Norris decrease to 47 points after a race in which he received two 10-second time penalties — one for forcing Norris off the track, and a short time later for gaining position when he left the track.
Verstappen spoke ahead of this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos and labelled claims he deliberately ran Norris off the track as a "pretty extreme accusation".
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"I didn't do anything on purpose. They can't look inside my head," he said. "It's a pretty extreme accusation. We just raced hard.
“It is my 10th year in F1. I know what I am doing. I like to win. I don’t like to lose. I think not many people like to lose. I just tried to maximise the result and, like I said, some you win, some you lose.”
After the race in Mexico, won by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, the FIA also handed Verstappen two penalty points, bringing his total to six for a 12-month period.
Verstappen has 362 points in the drivers' championship with four races and two sprint races to go, while Norris has 315. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc has a more distant shot at the title. He currently has 291 points.
Max Verstappen Lando Norris battle at the US Grand Prix and in Mexico. Fox Sports/Nine
Asked about criticism from 1996 F1 champion Damon Hill, who considered Verstappen to be too aggressive, the Dutchman responded: "I don’t listen to those individuals. I just do my thing. I’m a three-time world champion.”
He was more expansive, though, when speaking with Dutch-language journalists, suggesting he had the wrong nationality to be treated fairly by media and officials.
"I know what most people are like, it's nothing new," he said. "Last year was perfect, so it must have hurt a lot for many people that they couldn't say anything negative.
"Now they've got the chance to say something, so they're all coming out of the woodwork. At the end of the day, I've got the wrong passport for this paddock."
Later, Norris told journalists at Interlagos that Verstappen “deep down” knows he made mistakes in Mexico.
“I still have a lot of respect for Max and everything he does. Not respect for what he did last weekend, but I have respect for him as a person and for what he has achieved," the McLaren driver said.
“It is not for me to speak to him. I am not his teacher, his mentor or anything like that."
Max Verstappen did not hold back when speaking to Ducth journalists. Getty
Norris also said “Max knows what he has to do" about the incidents in Mexico.
"He knows that he did wrong, deep down he does. And that's for him to change, not for me,” the British driver said.
Mercedes driver George Russell, who is one of the directors of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, said a post-race meeting in Mexico turned out to be positive despite the differences between Verstappen and Norris. He also agreed that the actions of the Dutchman should have been punished as they were.
“If you read the rules, there are lines that say if you’re driving erratically or dangerously, you’ll be punished," Russell said.
"You can argue that if a driver outranks himself and doesn’t make the corner on the exit, that is erratic because you’re driving off the racetrack. So there is an element of interpretation that for sure just needs to be cleaned up.”
Verstappen said in his press conference that F1 is probably over-regulated.
“The rulebook is only getting bigger and bigger every single year,” the three-time champion said. “I don’t think that’s always the right way forward.”
