“As soon as I headed into qualifying, I knew the car was fucked.” That’s it. That’s the sentence that started this whole ridiculous FIA crackdown on drivers saying swears. And according to Max Verstappen, his own words might be the catalyst for him retiring from Formula One earlier than he had planned. Verstappen’s F-bomb earned him a penalty from the very top of the FIA, and he has been “obliged to accomplish some work of public interest” to pay for his misdeeds.
Following the penalty Verstappen chose to quietly protest the whole scenario by giving short and curt responses to questions during this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix post-session press conferences. Because he didn’t wish to be penalized further by saying something untoward in the official FIA press room, Max held his own press conferences on the sidewalk outside the room. In one of those media scrums, Max admitted he might be considering an early retirement over the FIA’s decision to be dicks to him about swearing.
“For sure, these kind of things definitely decide my future as well,” Verstappen said. “You know, when you can’t be yourself, or you have to deal with these kind of silly things. I think now I’m at the stage of my career that you don’t want to be dealing with this all the time. It’s really tiring.
“Of course, it’s great to have success and win races, but once you have accomplished all that winning championships and races, and then you want to just have a good time as well.”
I have to admit that it would be incredibly hilarious for Max to fight his ass off to keep Lando Norris from snatching the 2024 world driver’s championship title, then just walk away from the sport a four-time champ. At this point he doesn’t need the money, he doesn’t need the fame, and Red Bull seems to be losing itself in the rapids of a Christian Horner sexting scandal and the departure of several key team operatives. It might not be a bad idea to leave on top anyway.
Verstappen later drove the point home by saying, “For me at one point, when it’s enough, it’s enough, and we’ll see. Racing will go on, F1 will go on also without me. It’s also not a problem for me. It’s how it is.”
Following the race weekend, all of the F1 drivers gathered to discuss the penalty against Max and how they would respond. Nothing has come from that yet, but it seems the drivers are standing against the FIA in a united front to stop the ridiculous and overzealous penalty. While some of these drivers are indeed still children, they should not be treated as such by the governing body of the sport.