F1 has a verstedappen problem – and keeps ignoring it

Over the years, Formula 1 Padock is being praised Max Verustapane – and well. Everyone is aware of his magnificent achievements and his remarkable records. The red bull driver holds a wonderful crowd with his talent – completely dominates the season, when grabbing the pole position when his car should not be in controversy, winning the race as a dark horse, or unlikely, is unlikely that there is no possibility of a stick.

The racecraft of vestappen is extraordinary. Just see the way they snatched the lead Oscar piastry At the beginning of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix-some drivers are actually able to achieve such an excellent move. It was adventurous, confident, accurate, clever – in fact the skill he can use Dutchman he wants.

The thing is that, there is a dark side for Vastapane. He doesn’t really even hide it, but many in the media, his team and his fans pretended to be not known about it – or just ignore it. This dark side emerged again under rapid pressure on Sunday.

His team asked him to go George Russell Through Spanish GP, Vastapane slowed down by then Mercedes The driver was with him, then resumed to hit the silver arrow driver. No honest person can believe in truth that it was anything but intentionally; There is no doubt about this, no possible nuances. Nevertheless, Stewards handled it by handing over a similar penalty to Vastapane, which was accidentally caused a conflict for good and bad racers.

An incident of such a dishonesty is already a problem, but can be forgiven; Finally, Sebstian wettel When he deliberately collided, he crossed a line Lewis Hamilton In 2017, in Baku, which led to a 10-second stop-and-go penalty. But this is not the first time we have seen unnatural driving of verstappen.

In 2021, a stressful Saudi Arabia GP at the Verustapain Break-Test Hamilton-Daur to take his title rival out of a unwanted attempt-and repeatedly runs his rivals away from the track, such as Brazil’s GP or Hamilton or Hamilton or in 2021 Lando Noris In the race of Mexico in 2024. He does not object to losing places in this process, until his opponent loses more.

The governing bodies have failed to address how continuously and deliberately Verustapane’s behavior is, and they will not even add a hoe a hoe a hoe to call a hoe ‘a hoe’ – a deliberate step to say ‘a step’. Whether they are ignoring it with purpose or through thoughtlessness, no one knows.

Steovers’ decision about the confrontation with Russell in Barcelona left a lot: “The driver of Car 1 was clearly unhappy to give back his team’s post. At the age of 5 years, the car 1 reduced its speed, allowing the car 63 to overtake 63.

“The collision was undoubtedly due to the works of Car 1.”

This is the standard terminology – although somewhat is humor in this context – to refer to the ‘car’ instead of the driver for Steward, but it is in addition to the point: he did not decide to draw a logical conclusion from his argument. Vastapane’s driving shows everything that he intends to hit Russell, so he should keep in mind how serious such an act is in racing.

A week ago, in Monaco, Steovers established that Russell cut “intentionally” Chiren-which is unsafe, but very little dangerous-and they had no qualifications about breaking on Mercedes driver with a drive-through penalty instead of normal five or 10 seconds.

In Barcelona, ​​the situation was crystal-clier, yet Vastapane received a standard punishment, which was more generous than Russell in Monaco. Well, not completely standard as they got three penalty points on their license instead of two. go figure.

Verstappen has always been an extremely polarized character. Many people believe-or pretend-this is only due to their elbow-out racing style, as a logical symptom of their hunger for victory. However, their actions often move far ahead of ‘hard but fair’, and he clearly stands by them, the way he usually speaks post-race.

Some Spanish GP will be eager to reduce the only example to reduce the phenomenon, yet it adds to all the previous episodes, when Vestepen did not get the punishment he deserved. Certainly the four-time world champion, who is naturally a highly confident athlete, is aware-less or more conscious-that when he works in this way, he never loses.

Penalty has never solved the problem on the basis of case-by-case, as their Barcelona trick shows. Vastapane brilliantly uses the gray regions of the system when he considers it necessary or feels insecure, taking things beyond the range. This is not about that a trick was completed with four wheels from the track, if a driver went under braking or which was ahead at the top. This is about colliding with the purpose – unwanted behavior on 800 kg cars on 800 kg cars.

The verstappen problem is a serious, and FIA and F1 should now address it completely.