{"id":248215,"date":"2025-10-29T16:18:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T16:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/248215\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T16:18:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T16:18:15","slug":"verstappen-deserved-heavy-f1-penalty-at-mexico-gp-as-a-proper-deterrent-brundle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/248215\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen deserved heavy F1 penalty at Mexico GP as a “proper deterrent” \u2013 Brundle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle<\/a> would have given Max Verstappen<\/a> a drive-through penalty for cutting the Turns 1-2-3 section at the start of the Mexico Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Verstappen found himself on the dusty outside kerb ahead of the first braking zone at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with polesitter Lando Norris<\/a> on the right-hand side of the track and both Ferraris between them; the Red Bull driver locked-up, quickly realised he was going too deep into the corner and drove straight to the exit of Turn 3, emerging in third place.<\/p>\n

Verstappen subsequently let Lewis Hamilton<\/a> through, returning to the fourth position he held before the first corner \u2013 but that\u2019s not acceptable, Brundle has claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMax should have had a penalty, because if you put your car on the far-left and four abreast, it will go on the kerb,\u201d the Sky Sports pundit said on the channel\u2019s F1 Show podcast. \u201cYou can see Max actually accelerate \u2013 really skilful driving through the grass, I must say, but Max made no effort whatsoever to take Turns 1, 2 or 3. And that should have been a penalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cMax took the risk on the outside, knowing full well he could just bury the throttle and carry on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might even have given somebody doing what Max did a drive-through, really as a proper deterrent to stop the silliness. Because then it all gets chaotic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Charles <\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Lando Norris, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Kym Illman \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve<\/a> disagreed, based on the fact that Verstappen \u2013 as he often does in his ruthless quest for perfection \u2013 simply bent the rule without breaching it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is, intent is one thing, and we cannot put really intent in the rules, it’s difficult,\u201d Villeneuve pointed out. \u201cBy the rules, he was ahead of George [Russell], let them back, so by the rules, it didn’t deserve a penalty. By the action, yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo how do you proceed? You follow the rules, or you go with what we know is right and wrong. And right now, you just have to go by the rules, because the rules have been put in place. And the rules are actually very badly written, like we’ve seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knew it was worth taking a risk because whatever, just step on the gas and go through. So did [Verstappen and Leclerc] deserve a penalty? Driving-wise, yes. According to the rules, no. That’s the difficulty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also in an unfavourable position on the outside of Norris and Hamilton into Turn 1, Charles Leclerc<\/a> was given space by his team-mate but nonetheless cut Turn 2 to emerge in the lead. The Monegasque let Norris through but crucially retained the position over Hamilton.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, at least Charles made an attempt at Turn 1, didn’t like the look of the way it was shaping up, so just ignored Turn 2 \u2013 and that, for me, was also a 10-second penalty,\u201d Brundle said.<\/p>\n

\"Charles <\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lando Norris, McLaren, George Russell, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sam Bagnall \/ Sutton Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Villeneuve concurred: \u201cLeclerc, yes, because he was actually behind Lewis. He didn’t even try to make the corner. He stepped on it and realised, \u2018Oh, it’s my team-mate. Nothing will happen to me.\u2019<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the problem is that corner. If you have gravel there or a wall, you wouldn’t be four-wide. You would be two-wide maybe, and everybody else would back off, because they would know that there’s not an escape road. Now they think, \u2018Okay, it doesn’t matter \u2013 if I just brake way too late, I might be ahead, I’ll come out ahead, maybe I let them by or not, nothing lost. It’s worth the risk.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that’s why we have these crazy first corners on that track. That is an issue that we will have every year. Just drivers dive-bombing on the outside, knowing then they can just go straight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incidents drew the ire of several competitors, with fifth-placed George Russell<\/a> labelling his peers\u2019 driving standards as \u201clawnmower racing\u201d<\/a> while Fernando Alonso<\/a> cunningly announced that he too might start cutting corners if that went unpunished.<\/p>\n

\u201cI completely can understand those drivers \u2013 that were minding their business actually staying on the race track \u2013 going like, \u2018Well, hang on, I’m losing out here. I might as well just make my own race track up in the first few corners and gain some places\u2019,\u201d Brundle pointed out.<\/p>\n

Leclerc and Verstappen both took podium finishes in Mexico, with the Dutchman\u2019s title bid more alive than ever with his deficit to championship leader Norris down to 36 points.<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle would have given Max Verstappen a drive-through penalty for cutting the Turns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[110366,49,48,3025,578,930,576,577,13138,932,25252,110365,2190,82,116055],"class_list":{"0":"post-248215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-autodromo-hermanos-rodriguez","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-charles-leclerc","12":"tag-f1","13":"tag-ferrari","14":"tag-formula-1","15":"tag-formula1","16":"tag-jacques-villeneuve","17":"tag-lewis-hamilton","18":"tag-martin-brundle","19":"tag-mexican-gp","20":"tag-red-bull-racing","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-verstappen-deserved-heavy-f1-penalty-at-mexico-gp-as-a-proper-deterrent-u2013-brundle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}