While Lando Norris still disagrees with the penalty he received during the closing stages of the US Grand Prix, Max Verstappen still thinks he had done nothing wrong, especially considering the current rules. And while by the books the Red Bull driver was in the clear, there was still quite a lot of controversy surrounding his driving.
Talking to the press in Mexico City ahead of the second of three consecutive race weekends, Verstappen explained he feels that sometimes the rules are too much, to the point you need to bring them during the race.
“I think we are getting to a stage where I almost need the book in the car. That’s how it is. I mean, I think if you look, over the years, the book has grown quite a lot.”
The Dutchman feels the racing is subject to too many rules, although he understands why there here, as without the rules the discussions would also be there.
“It is definitely over-regulated,” he said. “But then also, I can see the other point of if you take rules away, and then there is again an incident like, ‘oh, we need more rules, you know, we need to be stronger on this’.
“It’s always the same thing, you know, because in the past, we had maybe some lesser rules, and then you have the same argument, ‘we need to be stronger on this or that’. It’s always the same story.”
The current World Championship leader said he has “no concerns” whether driving standards and this incident in particular would be discussed during the drivers’ meeting.
Suggestions that he intended to miss the corner in order to be ahead at the apex were swiftly dismissed by Verstappen.
“Yeah, it’s quite impressive that people can read my mind,” he scoffed. “It’s crazy. I mean, I always tried to make the corner.
“I didn’t want to look for a shortcut, so I don’t even know what to answer to these people.”
Verstappen hadn’t yet talked to Norris about the incident, but doesn’t feel a conversation between the two would add much.
“We always said that we wanted to race each other hard. That’s what we like to do.”
