Oct.19 - Max Verstappen admits he is yet to speak to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem in the wake of the Singapore swearing affair.

George Russell, senior director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, says the GPDA is standing behind the triple world champion, who must complete a day of unspecified community service for describing his Red Bull as "f*cked" in an FIA press conference.

Verstappen retaliated by almost completely refusing to speak in any subsequent FIA session - including this weekend in Austin.

"When I was a child, I never saw a Formula 1 press conference and yet I said much worse things at school," Verstappen told reporters on Friday.

Russell says the GPDA will draft a joint letter on behalf of all Formula 1 driver members soon.

"It's really silly that it has come to this," said the Mercedes driver. "I hope that maybe next week in Mexico we will be able to speak to the FIA about it.

"We drivers are speaking with one voice and we also want to address the public with a joint letter."

Verstappen, 27, revealed that he is also yet to hear from the FIA president since Singapore. "No, nothing," said the Dutchman.

"But I'm open to a conversation. I'm just dealing with other things at the moment. But nothing is changing. I just have to talk less.

"That's fine with me."

The Red Bull driver said the whole affair was completely "unnecessary".

"Unfortunately, many things in the world are like that these days," Verstappen added. "But in this case it is particularly unnecessary.

"When it comes to being careful about your choice of words, it should actually be more about not offending anyone."

Feisty former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya thinks the FIA "over-reacted" in Singapore and should now be plotting a course in the reverse direction.

"It's petty as hell," said the Colombian. "And what for?

"The way Max handled it, I think it's classic. At the end of day F1 is going to have to tell the FIA to leave him alone, because they need him. At some point, the FIA has to go 'Oh, we screwed up'."


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6 F1 Fan comments on “Verstappen Faces FIA Showdown Over Swearing Scandal In Austin

  1. Jere Jyrälä

    FIA & GPDA had more than enough time to discuss & clarify the matter within this summer break-long interval & yet still nothing.

  2. smokey

    The FIA president, Mr Binman, has little to do. Next week he will be cleaning the toilets to make sure nobody nobody makes a mess!

    TV networks for many decades have had measures in place to beep out any words determined to be inappropriate. Journalists use colourful words all the time, although not in print or on live shows, so who has been offended? Storm in a tea cup!

  3. CanadianEh

    The dichotomy of the situation is ridiculous - Mo hands Max a 1-day community service penalty for using a common acronym. Political correctness run amok - again.

    In the meantime, in Saudia Arabia some poor beggar gets his hand lopped-off for stealing a loaf of bread, and a woman gets stoned to death for driving to the mall for a coffee with her friends.

    Go figure.

  4. Wayne King

    The only FIA President that you would bother to feed since 1985 is Jean Todt, the rest have been either incompetent or fools with their frequently stupid decisions.
    Jean Marie Balestre - incompetent
    Max Mosely - fool
    Jean Todt - did a good job and made appropriate decisions
    Mohammed Ben Sulayem - disaster and a fool

    I mean, who votes these people into power? And under whose authority do the voters act? Who are they supposedly representing? They don't act in the interests of motor racing!

    • shroppyfly

      they are appointed in a vote by the main committees of every country that is Fia affiliated, who in turn act as representatives for that countries fia controlled motor sports


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