Verstappen won’t change approach over F1 race ban threat: “Why should I?”

Over the next two Formula 1 grands prix in Canada and Austria, one penalty point will be enough for Max Verstappen to be banned for a race, but he insists that won’t play on his mind when he gets into his Red Bull.

Verstappen was handed a 10-second time penalty and three penalty points for driving into Mercedes’ George Russell in the final stages of the Spanish Grand Prix, which brings his total over the past 12 months up to 11, with 12 leading to an automatic one race ban. Only after the Austria race will he start losing points again to diminish that threat.

But in case there was any doubt, Verstappen will resolutely stick to his guns over the next two races and won’t change his approach at all. “No, nothing changed. Why should I?” Verstappen shrugged while speaking to the media in Montreal.

“It is what it is. I was on eight points before and now it’s 11. I mean, I cannot just back out of everything. I’m just going to race like I always do. I trust myself.”

Verstappen said he “didn’t need to go into” whether or not he felt it was fair that he was in such a perilous position in the first place: “But at the same time, life is not fair. I don’t worry about it.

“I just come here to race, and I will always race hard, how I think I should race. And then we go on to the next race.”

Verstappen did offer an explanation on why he got so frustrated with how his race was unravelling, from an aggressive three-stop strategy that was undone by a late safety car, Charles Leclerc trading blows with him on the straight and being pushed out by Russell into Turn 1 as the Mercedes driver suffered a twitch.

As he kept position by going down the escape road Verstappen was then advised to let Russell past again, which turned out to be unnecessary and led to his frustration boiling over.

“Of course, like I said, it was not the right thing to do at the time. It was a misjudgement, clearly, in the corner, but you don’t need to go into full detail of why, how and what. Everyone makes mistakes in life. Everyone learns from them and we just move on,” he said.

“It was just a very frustrating few laps in a row. I got driven into on the straight, I almost crashed already with the hard tyres. Then I got driven into in Turn 1.

“Then they tell me that I have to give the place back. I’m like, that makes no sense. So it was a lot of things that just came together.

“Until that point we had a good race. We did the right strategy for our car, and we at least put a bit of pressure on McLaren in the race, where they were again very fast compared to everyone else. But, yeah, just a frustrating end.”

One journalist suggested Verstappen’s points situation may continue to be a topic until he loses a bigger batch of points in October, to which the Dutchman replied: “Maybe for you, not for me. I don’t think about it.”

Additional reporting by Emily Selleck