McLaren say Max Verstappen penalties ‘not enough’ after ‘ridiculous’ Mexico moves

MEXICO CITY – McLaren team chief Zak Brown praised the race stewards for handing Max Verstappen 20 seconds in penalties on Oct 27, adding that it was “probably not enough” after the three-time world champion finished sixth at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Verstappen, the championship leader but without a win in 10 races since the Spanish Grand Prix in June, was penalised for his overaggressive driving in two bruising incidents with Norris in the early stages of the race.

Both times, he pushed the Briton off the circuit, as he had in similar circumstances in Austin during the Oct 20 United States Grand Prix.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who leaves the team to be replaced by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in 2025, won the race ahead of Norris, with Charles Leclerc third in the second Ferrari.

“It’s probably not enough. I mean it’s getting a bit ridiculous. I applaud the FIA (International Automobile Federation) stewards. Enough is enough. Let’s just have some good, clean racing moving forwards,” said Brown.

“I think the stewards are on it, I think that’s clear by the penalties that were given. The stewards did a good job this weekend.”

Norris said: “I go into every race expecting a tough battle with Max. It’s clear that it doesn’t matter if he wins or (finishes) second, his only job is to beat me in the race. And he’ll sacrifice himself to do that, like he did today...

“But I think today was not fair, clean racing. And therefore, I think he got what he had coming to him.”

Verstappen started from second on the grid alongside pole-sitter Sainz and passed him at the start to lead the early laps before the Spaniard passed him shortly before he began his scrap with Norris.

The result meant that Verstappen’s lead in the title race was trimmed by 10 points to 47 while in the constructors’ championship, Ferrari overtook Red Bull to move up to second, 29 points adrift of leaders McLaren with four race weekends remaining.

Verstappen shrugged off the penalties as “quite big” but said he felt more concerned at Red Bull’s loss of competitive pace, which contributed to the controversial incidents.

“The problem is that when you’re slower, you are being put in those kind of positions and I’m not going to give up easily,” the Dutchman said.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about agreeing or disagreeing about penalties... The only thing is 20 seconds is quite a lot, but the biggest problem of today and something that I worry about is the race pace which was really not good and something that we need to analyse.

“Even without those penalties, we had no chance at all to fight up front.”

On a bad day for Red Bull, with Sergio Perez penalised five seconds for making a false start before finishing 17th, team boss Christian Horner was defensive.

He said: “This is dangerous territory – when is a ‘dive bomb’ going to be OK?

“The drivers and the FIA need to sit down together and sort out some agreement. The two time penalties for Max were a bit on the hard side today.”

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, however, felt stewards had set a precedent in punishing Verstappen.

“A driver will always push to the limit and when... the execution of the rules or interpretation of the rules allow a certain way of racing, then a driver like Max is always going to exploit it,” said the Austrian.

“And I think now there has been a new interpretation, execution of those regulations. I think it will change the way everybody races in the future. You won’t see that any more.”

Sainz, meanwhile, was delighted to win in front of his mother for the first time, ahead of his move to Williams next season.

He said: “I thought it could be very nice that one of my last victories with Ferrari came at such a special circuit, with all my family here. It’s the first time my mother has come to see me win, so I was particularly looking forward to it.” AFP, REUTERS