Tag: Max Verstappen

Verstappen streams past 14 cars to win drenched Sao Paulo GP

Max Verstappen claimed a sensational 15th-to-first victory ahead of a shock double podium for Alpine at a marathon wet-weather Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Polesitter Lando Norris, having spied a chance to make significant gains on Verstappen’s title lead, …

Max Verstappen claimed a sensational 15th-to-first victory ahead of a shock double podium for Alpine at a marathon wet-weather Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Polesitter Lando Norris, having spied a chance to make significant gains on Verstappen’s title lead, finished a scrappy and error-prone sixth, his title challenge snuffed out. The Briton also ended the race under post-race investigation for a start procedure infringement, having bizarrely completed an additional formation lap after the first start was abandoned after Lance Stroll spun off the road and ended beached in the gravel before the start.

Verstappen capitalized on his rival’s mistakes and the intermittent heavy rain to break his 10-race victory drought with a masterclass wet-weather performance and put one hand on a fourth championship trophy.

The Dutchman — who technically started from 17th on the grid but Alex Albon and Lance Stroll failed to take the start — was up to 11th on the first lap and up to sixth by lap 11, putting himself within striking distance of the podium in the variable weather. From there his victory hinged on two key incidents between laps 27 and 32 of 69.

The first was Nico Hulkenberg spearing off the road at the first turn and getting stuck on a raised drain, triggering a virtual safety car. He was subsequently disqualified for having marshals dislodge his car to help him rejoin the race.

The timing of the caution was poor for erstwhile leader George Russell, who had taken top spot into the first turn on the first lap, and Norris, both having just powered down the front straight, and they were only just cresting the hill towards the pit entrance when virtual safety car was ending. Both committed to pitting anyway, dropping them to fourth and fifth behind Esteban Ocon, Verstappen and Pierre Gasly, who didn’t stop during the interruption. That premature pit stop came back to bite hard on lap 32, when Franco Colapinto crashed his Williams climbing the hill out of Juncao.

Safety car neutralization was already underway just as Norris retook what should have been the net lead, but Colapinto’s smash forced its suspension with red flags. It gifted Ocon, Verstappen and Gasly free tire changes, relegating Norris and Russell to fourth and fifth.

A rolling restart was called for once conditions mellowed enough for racing to resume, with Ocon nailing his start, gapping Verstappen, with Russell pinching fourth from Norris. The action lasted just five laps before Carlos Sainz sent his Ferrari careering into the wall at Turn 8, forcing another safety car.

The second resumption wasn’t as smooth for the leading Frenchman. Waiting until the last moment to put his foot down, Verstappen had no trouble shadowing him down pit straight and launching a move down the inside at Turn 1 to take top spot.

News got better for the Dutchman, with Norris losing his bearings in the first-turn melee and ending up off the track, where he dropped to seventh behind teammate Oscar Piastri when he rejoined, dumping him out of podium contention.

With only the relatively uncompetitive Alpines behind him and with overtaking tricky in the slippery conditions, Verstappen opened up a comfortable margin at the head of the field with ease to record a famous and dominant 19.2s victory.

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“My emotions today have been a rollercoaster, with qualifying being really unlucky with that red flag,” he said of the events that left him down the grid order. “I knew it was going to be a very tough race. … We stayed out of trouble. We made the right calls. We stayed calm and we were flying. All of those things together made that result possible.

“Unbelievable to win here from so far back on the grid.”

Ocon was faultless after losing the lead to take his fourth career podium and his first since last year’s Monaco Grand Prix.

“What a day that was after a difficult season,” he said. “It’s really nice to be driving around here and having the performance a bit leveled out in the rain. … I felt at ease when it started to rain this morning. I love it here when it rains. Today [was] a special race for us.”

Pierre Gasly completed the podium double by holding off Russell’s faster Mercedes in the final laps of the race to claim the fourth piece of silverware of his career.

“It’s incredible for the whole team,” he said. “We’ve had such a tough season. We’ve struggled to score points. … Two cars on the podium — I don’t think anyone would’ve had that on their bingo card ahead of the season. It’s just fantastic.”

The 33-point double rostrum appearance leaps Alpine from ninth to sixth in the constructors championship, three points ahead of Haas and 37 behind Aston Martin.

Russell turned his early race lead into fourth behind Gasly, but both he and teammate Lewis Hamilton, who finished 10th, face a post-race investigation for Mercedes adjusting their tire pressures on the grid with wheels already fitted to the car.

Charles Leclerc finished a quiet fifth for Ferrari ahead of the chastened Norris in sixth, the Briton gifted the place by teammate Piastri in another team order. It dropped him to 61 points off the title lead, with the championship able to be settled against him at the next race in Las Vegas.

Norris, too, might have post-race pain to endure pending an investigation for a breach of start procedure.

An aborted start to allow Stroll’s beached car to be collected required cars to wait on the grid, effectively as though the formation lap hadn’t happened yet, but Norris instead embarked on another lap of the circuit, followed by Russell, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson. After a short delay, most of the rest of the field followed with permission from race control. Those four drivers will see the stewards after the race to explain an unprecedented situation.

Tsunoda finished seventh after being promoted a place ahead of Piastri, who copped a 10s penalty for hitting Lawson in the first half of the race. Lawson finished directly behind him in ninth after a spirited battle with Hamilton and Sergio Perez behind him in the closing laps, the Kiwi junior prevailing over his more experienced rivals.

Hamilton completed the top 10 ahead of the scoreless Perez, Oliver Bearman, Valtteri Bottas, the injured Fernando Alonso and Zhou Guanyu as the last among the finishers.

Norris on pole, Verstappen 17th after marathon wet qualifying

Lando Norris will start the Sao Paulo Grand Prix from pole in a marathon wet-weather qualifying session, with his title rival Max Verstappen starting as low as 17th on the grid. The grid-setting session, postponed from Saturday due to thunderstorms, …

Lando Norris will start the Sao Paulo Grand Prix from pole in a marathon wet-weather qualifying session, with his title rival Max Verstappen starting as low as 17th on the grid.

The grid-setting session, postponed from Saturday due to thunderstorms, featured five red flags as drivers struggled to keep their cars on the road in treacherously slippery conditions and sometimes driving rain.

Lance Stroll’s crash at Curva do Sol in the final minute of Q2 was the most consequential for the title, costing championship leader Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing teammate Sergio Perez a spot in the top 10.

It was particularly costly for Verstappen, for whom a five-place grid penalty for a new internal combustion engine will see him start the grand prix 17th, gifting pole-getter Norris a chance to take a significant chunk out of his 44-point championship deficit.

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Norris’s pole was decided in the first five minutes of Q3, when the top nine cars – Stroll’s crashed Aston Martin excluded – took to the circuit for continuous laps in case conditions worsened.

The McLaren driver was consistently the most competitive, twice rotating through top spot before qualifying was suspended for a fourth time, on this occasion for Fernando Alonso’s crashed car at the high-speed Mergulho.

The Spaniard’s Aston Martin snapped from beneath him suddenly and without warning as he got on the power, ploughing at speed into the far barrier. With damage to the front and rear of the car, a hasty gearbox and power unit change could loom in the barely 3 hours before lights-out for the grand prix.

The session resumed after 12 minutes, but it had barely got going in anger before it was suspended again, this time for Alex Albon, who wrote off his Williams in a monster crash at the first turn.

The Thai driver’s car snapped under braked, spinning backwards and copping a heavy hit to its right-hand side and rear before coming to rest in the run-off in a smoldering heap. He was able to extricate himself from the wreckage, but the team will have its work cut out to repair the car in time for the grand prix.

If Albon’s car can be fixed, it may come at the expense of efforts to repair teammate Franco Colapinto’s car after the rookie crashed in Q1 on a miserable afternoon for Williams’s mechanics.

The session resumed with little more than three minutes on the clock and seven cars remaining, and Norris picked up where he’d left off, pumping in fastest laps to put pole beyond reach after almost 1h 45m of disrupted track action.

“There was a lot going on today,” he said. “But I’m super, super happy, because I was struggling a lot at the beginning of qualifying.

“That risk-reward was not easy today. Eyes forward [for the race]. It’s never easy in these conditions. It’s never [about] settling down and getting on with it. We’ll see. We’ll prepare well.”

George Russell made a late improvement to take second, the Mercedes driver getting with 0.173s of top spot.

“It was a great session,” he said. “Let’s see what we can do I the race.”

Yuki Tsunoda was sensational in the wet, taking a career-best third on the grid at 0.706s adrift for RB.

“It was very tricky,” he said. “Certainly I enjoyed it. I think we had good pace straight away. I had a couple of mistakes, had a bit of luck as well.

“I think overall as a team, including Liam [Lawson, in fifth] as well, we did a really good job.”

Esteban Ocon will start fourth for Alpine ahead of Lawson in the second RB, the two drivers split by just 0.009s.

Charles Leclerc was sixth after catching a yellow flag caused by Oscar Piastri, who locked up at the first turn on his final lap.

Piastri was eighth fastest behind the crashed-out Albon, with the wrecks of Alonso and Stroll’s Aston Martin cars completing the top 10.

Valtteri Bottas qualified 11th, his best one-lap result since April’s Chinese Grand Prix, ahead of Verstappen and Perez.

Perez was incensed to have missed the cut-off, blasting the team for having him queue in pit lane to rejoin the track after Sainz’s red flag, during which time his tires cooled in the rain. It meant he couldn’t improve his time quickly enough, needing to re-warm his tires on the track, leaving him exposed to the Stroll red flag that dumped him out of qualifying early.

“Come on guys!” he shouted. “We’ve got to do a better program. We should have waited. If everyone is waiting already at the end of the pit lane, why we do [have to]?”

Carlos Sainz was 14th after crashing his Ferrari at the Senna S, his car spinning off the road and making heavy contact with the wall dividing the track from the pit exit, causing the second red flag of the day.

He and Pierre Gasly, who qualified 15th, will be promoted a place on the grid thanks to Verstappen’s penalty, as will Lewis Hamilton, who was the biggest scalp of the early wet weather, qualifying 16th after consistently failing to string together a clean lap in a car he described as “undrivable.”

Hamilton’s penultimate lap wasn’t good enough to get him out of the bottom five, and though he temporarily leapt up to 14th, improvements from others ensured he was never going to keep the place.

“This damn car, man,” he radioed in frustration, eliminated from Q1 for the second time in three grands prix.

Oliver Bearman was the quickest Haas but ended up 17th — he’ll also gain a place after Verstappen’s penalty — with teammate Nico Hulkenberg in 19th.

Colapinto was sandwiched between them despite crashing out of qualifying less than 10 minutes into Q1, the wheels of his Williams spinning up exiting the Senna S and sending him smacking into the outside barriers at Curva do Sol after a 360-degree spin. His mechanics were spotted by TV cameras with their heads in their hands, knowing that they had less than five hours to repair the car’s right-hand corners before lights out for the grand prix.

Zhou Guanyu was last in the soaking-wet first session for Sauber.

Verstappen fumes at race control ahead of P17 race start

Max Verstappen called it “unbelievable” that race control took 40 seconds to throw a red flag late in Q2 that has left him starting 17th at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix once his five-place grid penalty for a new internal combustion engine is applied. …

Max Verstappen called it “unbelievable” that race control took 40 seconds to throw a red flag late in Q2 that has left him starting 17th at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix once his five-place grid penalty for a new internal combustion engine is applied.

Multiple crashes delayed Sunday morning’s qualifying session in the rain, with Lance Stroll going off late in Q2. At the time, Verstappen was 10th, but with the session continuing under double waved yellows to allow those ahead of the crash to complete their laps, Verstappen was pushed down into the drop zone in 12th place by the time the red flag came out.

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“I find it unbelievable,” Verstappen said. “The car goes into the wall, broken, it’s clearly destroyed, but they wait 30-40 seconds so everybody else can just complete their lap times, and of course the ones behind cannot even do a lap.

“I can’t get my head around it, how that is possible to just let it go for 30 seconds, 40 seconds, and that of course ruins qualifying. We are already limited with the pits because we’re at the back, so when you do the restart time you have to wait until you go out so we’re always in the back. It really blows my mind.”

Verstappen described the situation as “bulls**t” to Sky Sports, adding “Honestly, I’ll let it go, it’s so stupid to talk about it’s ridiculous.”

With a five-place grid penalty for exceeding power unit components already confirmed, Verstappen is set to start from 17th on the grid, and although he could be promoted a number of positions due to crash damage for other cars, he’s expecting a tough race.

“Starting far in the back so will be quite difficult to pass here with the spray and the rain,” he said, “so we’ll have a look.”

Verstappen demoted to fourth in Sprint following penalty

Max Verstappen has been demoted to fourth place in the Sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix due to a penalty for a virtual safety car infringement. Nico Hulkenberg stopped on track in the closing laps and the VSC was deployed to clear the Haas, with …

Max Verstappen has been demoted to fourth place in the Sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix due to a penalty for a virtual safety car infringement.

Nico Hulkenberg stopped on track in the closing laps and the VSC was deployed to clear the Haas, with McLaren having swapped its drivers half a lap earlier to give Lando Norris the lead. Verstappen was close behind Oscar Piastri at the time and had radioed Red Bull to tell it to look out for Piastri dropping too far behind his teammate to create a buffer.

However, with the race resuming at the start of the final lap, Verstappen was found to have been below the minimum delta time allowed and was hit with a five-second time penalty for gaining an advantage. With Charles Leclerc finishing 4.1s behind Verstappen, it drops the Red Bull driver from third to fourth.

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“Article 56.5 states in part, ‘All cars must also be above this minimum time when the FIA light panels change to green,’” the stewards’ decision read. “The driver was 0.63 seconds below the minimum time at VSC End when the FIA light panels changed to green. This indicates a sporting advantage gained under VSC.

“The driver explained that as he was awaiting VSC to end and he got the notification that he was below the minimum time, he attempted to correct the error but failed to do so by the point that the panels turned green. This is a breach and the standard penalty is applied for the advantage gained at that time.

“The net effect of this put the driver ahead of where he was at the start of the VSC and not as a result of the car in front falling back.”

Verstappen also gets a penalty point for the infringement, bringing him up to seven points for the 12-month period, five short of an automatic one-race suspension. He already has a grid penalty for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday for taking an extra power unit component, that will drop him five places for tomorrow’s race.

With Norris winning the Sprint, he closes Verstappen’s championship lead to 44 points.

Verstappen under investigation following Sprint

Max Verstappen is under investigation for a virtual safety car infringement late in the Sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Nico Hulkenberg stopped on track in the closing laps and the VSC was deployed to clear the Haas, with McLaren having swapped …

Max Verstappen is under investigation for a virtual safety car infringement late in the Sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Nico Hulkenberg stopped on track in the closing laps and the VSC was deployed to clear the Haas, with McLaren having swapped its drivers half a lap earlier to give Lando Norris the lead. Verstappen was close behind Oscar Piastri at the time and had radioed Red Bull to tell it to look out for Piastri dropping too far behind his teammate to create a buffer.

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However, with the race resuming at the start of the final lap, it is now Verstappen who is under investigation for a VSC infringement. Verstappen had pulled alongside Piastri on the run to Turn 4 with the VSC panels still showing, but as the incident was noted after the checkered flag it is being investigated after the Sprint.

Verstappen originally finished third, but should he be hit with a time penalty he will lose at least one position, with Charles Leclerc – who Verstappen overtook mid-race – finishing within five seconds in fourth place. The gap to fifth-placed Carlos Sainz was 5.8 seconds adrift of Verstappen, meaning a 10-second time penalty would cost the championship leader two positions.

Any penalty would be applied to the race results. Verstappen already has a five place grid penalty for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday for taking an extra power unit component.

Norris beats Piastri after team orders in Sao Paulo Sprint

Lando Norris won the Sao Paulo Sprint race after teammate Oscar Piastri ceded the lead late in the race to benefit the Briton’s title challenge. Pole-getter Piastri aced his start to keep Norris at bay into the first corner, with Charles Leclerc …

Lando Norris won the Sao Paulo Sprint race after teammate Oscar Piastri ceded the lead late in the race to benefit the Briton’s title challenge.

Pole-getter Piastri aced his start to keep Norris at bay into the first corner, with Charles Leclerc defending hard ahead of an aggressive Max Verstappen to retain third.

The top eight held station in the opening laps, with the gaps between places opening up on a day tire degradation loomed as a significant unknown after a single inconclusive hour of practice on Friday.

The top four were notable exceptions, however, with a delicate game of DRS playing out between the leading McLaren teammates dictating how close Verstappen could get to Leclerc.

Leclerc was reliant on keeping within 1s of Norris ahead to comfortably hold back Verstappen by neutralizing the DRS effect, the Dutchman otherwise having better pace throughout the Sprint. Piastri in turn was required to keep Norris within DRS to ensure the Briton didn’t fall into the Ferrari driver’s clutches. The strategy frustrated Norris, who gave the impression he expected to be allowed into the lead early in the sprint.

“I’m not sure what I’m doing here mate,” he radioed. “I thought we spoke about this.”

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Norris made life difficult for himself, however, with a slide through the middle sector, dropping himself well beyond 1s of the lead. Piastri was in turn told to reduce his pace to bring his teammate back with DRS range.

Leclerc was the next driver to make a minor mistake, the pressure of defending against Verstappen beginning to tell. It gave the McLaren drivers a chance to generate some valuable breathing room to the pursuing cars.

“If Lando attacks, do not make it too difficult,” Piastri was told, while Norris was told if he couldn’t make the move on the track, he would be allowed through on the final lap.

Verstappen, however, complicated matters significantly by finally blasting past Leclerc on lap 18, a better run out of the Senna S getting him into third with the aid of DRS on the run down to turn 4, Descida do Lago. The Dutchman was significantly quicker that Leclerc and immediately began menacing the leaders.

The race was building to a fraught finish when Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas expired in the middle sector, the German parking just off the track on lap 22.

Sensing that the race might suddenly end behind a safety car, McLaren made the call immediately for its cars to swap positions. Piastri duly obliged, slowing on the straight down to turn 4 to allow Norris through. It was a prescient decision, with the virtual safety car triggered at the end of the lap, suspending the race until the leaders were halfway around the final lap.

Norris nailed the restart, but Piastri came under significant threat from Verstappen behind as the pair entered the braking zone for turn 4 just as green conditions prevailed. The Dutchman pulled alongside the McLaren threateningly but couldn’t make the move, and the Australian was able to hold him off to the checkered flag behind his victorious teammate.

“I’m not proud about it, but we worked well as a team together, so I thank Oscar,” Norris said. “We’ve done a great job as a team. We got the result that we wanted.

“Oscar deserved it, but we’re doing what we have to do.”

The result reduced Norris’s championship deficit to 45 points.

Piastri was pleased the team took home the maximum score but warned that McLaren didn’t have the pace advantage it expected after sprint qualifying.

“It was a great day for the team, and a lot of points,” he said. “I think we learnt a lot for the race tomorrow as well. I think the pace was OK, but the Ferrari was very quick at the start and Max was very quick at the end. Let’s see.”

Verstappen was buoyed to have finished the sprint so competitively after an underwhelming sprint qualifying performance, noting that he could have finished further up had most of the race not been dictated by the DRS train freezing the top four.

“It was quite a tricky race, but I think the pace was very good because we could always follow in the DRS,” he said. “It took a bit too long with Charles, but when everyone was in the DRS train, it was very hard to attack. I had to wait for some mistakes, and luckily they came, and I could use them to my advantage.”

However,Verstappen may yet have his strong result impacted, with the Dutchman under investigation for a virtual safety car infringement.

Leclerc finished fourth ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz, George Russell and Pierre Gasly, the latter three finishing where they started.

Sergio Perez recovered five places from his starting position culminating in a battle with RB’s Liam Lawson. The Mexican made several attempts on the Kiwi, including one that resulted in a lock-up that sent him wide, but got the move done on lap 20 of 24 to score the final point of the race.

Lawson finished ninth ahead of Alex Albon, Lewis Hamilton, Franco Colapinto, Esteban Ocon, Oliver Bearman, Yuki Tsunoda and Valtteri Bottas.

Zhou Guanyu, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll completed the order, the trio having started from pit lane with setup changes.

Verstappen says bumpy Interlagos throwing Red Bull off its stride

Max Verstappen says the bumps at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix are hurting Red Bull after he could only qualify fourth for the Sprint. Interlagos has been resurfaced since Formula 1 last raced in Brazil and the track surface offered improved grip, but it …

Max Verstappen says the bumps at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix are hurting Red Bull after he could only qualify fourth for the Sprint.

Interlagos has been resurfaced since Formula 1 last raced in Brazil and the track surface offered improved grip, but it became evident from the opening laps of FP1 that it has also led to an extremely bumpy ride for the drivers. With Red Bull’s car preferring smoother surfaces, Verstappen says it was clear from the start of Sprint qualifying that he didn’t have the pace to challenge McLaren, and he’s expecting similar over a long run.

“As soon as we went into qualifying it looked like we were definitely off,” Verstappen said. “The car was a bit difficult on the bumps. They did the resurfacing but I think they actually made it worse to drive! It’s extremely bumpy everywhere, so that’s not good for our car. All the bumpy areas, the car is jumping around a lot, and it’s costing me quite a bit of lap time unfortunately.

“For tomorrow, I don’t know. Normally when you’re already quite a bit off over one lap, I don’t think we’re particularly the strongest in the race, so we’ll have to see how that goes tomorrow in the Sprint.

“Of course, I also know there is maybe some weather around that can come — maybe not for the Sprint, but we’ll have a look. And then for the penalty [on Sunday], I have a bit more work to do.”

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Title rival Lando Norris starts on the front row after being edged out by Oscar Piastri on the final lap, and says he’s not paying any attention to how Verstappen is performing.

“I don’t care — I hate these questions so much,” Norris said. “I’m just going to race, I don’t care about where he qualifies. For me I’m just going to focus on my own job. That’s it. It’s the same question every time, but it doesn’t matter, if he’s first or he’s last I’ll do the best I can.”

Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez also struggled as he dropped out in the second part of Sprint qualifying, and says he wasn’t able to get the car working well enough as track temperatures dropped compared to practice.

“We had a good Q1 but then into Q2 we were struggling a little bit with the balance,” Perez said. “We had a little bit of understeer with the track coming down and we tried to do it with the brake balance and tools that I had available, and I ended up a little bit too rear limited. And then it was a bit confusing on the program — we thought we might have a chance for a second lap and unfortunately we didn’t.

“It was a good, strong FP1, but I think today we did struggle quite a bit. Looking forward to tomorrow’s qualifying really. We got caught out with the conditions, unfortunately, and that’s really what was the difficult bit.”

Verstappen’s five-place grid penalty in Brazil confirmed

The FIA has confirmed Max Verstappen will take a five-place grid penalty at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix for exceeding power unit components. Red Bull had been analyzing when would be best to fit a new internal combustion engine (ICE) following issues …

The FIA has confirmed Max Verstappen will take a five-place grid penalty at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix for exceeding power unit components.

Red Bull had been analyzing when would be best to fit a new internal combustion engine (ICE) following issues in Mexico City, and selected Interlagos for a number of reasons. One is the ability to use the new power unit in the Sprint — and potentially picking up further points — prior to the penalty kicking in, as well as the ability to overtake on the Brazilian circuit compared to the remaining tracks on the calendar.

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The ICE that Verstappen is using is his sixth of the season, having previously taken a penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix before the summer break. On that occasion, as it was his first time exceeding the limit, it carried a 10-place grid penalty, but each subsequent infringement is a five-place drop.

The penalty only applies to Sunday’s grand prix, so where Verstappen starts the Sprint on Saturday will be unaffected by the change.

Verstappen enters the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend with a 47-point advantage over Lando Norris in the drivers’ championship, having seen that deficit cut by 10 points in Mexico City last weekend.

Verstappen to take engine penalty before end of season

Max Verstappen says he will have to take an engine penalty at some stage between now and the end of the season, with the upcoming Sao Paulo Grand Prix one option. Red Bull noted a lack of straight line performance from Verstappen’s car in the Mexico …

Max Verstappen says he will have to take an engine penalty at some stage between now and the end of the season, with the upcoming Sao Paulo Grand Prix one option.

Red Bull noted a lack of straight line performance from Verstappen’s car in the Mexico City Grand Prix, where he had been hampered by power unit issues during Friday practice. This weekend’s race in Brazil has been suggested as a likely venue because of the overtaking opportunities at Interlagos, but while he confirmed a penalty is coming at some stage, Verstappen said no decision has been made about the timing.

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“I haven’t heard anything yet,” Verstappen said. “It’s not been discussed, but I know that I will have to take one at some point. So we’ll see.

“Honestly, [picking a good circuit] is something that is always unknown. You think that one particular track is the best place to take an engine or whatever penalty, but it’s never guaranteed. But [Interlagos] is a possibility.”

Should Verstappen take the penalty this weekend, he will only take any associated grid penalties for the grand prix itself on Sunday. In 2021, Lewis Hamilton took a power unit penalty and won from 10th on the grid after starting the Sprint at the back when he was disqualified from qualifying due to a technical infringement.

Verstappen shrugs off critics: ‘I’m a three-time world champion. I think I know what I’m doing’

Max Verstappen says his three Formula 1 drivers’ championships show he knows how to race following criticism of his driving ahead of this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The stewards gave Verstappen two 10-second time penalties for his driving in …

Max Verstappen says his three Formula 1 drivers’ championships show he knows how to race following criticism of his driving ahead of this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The stewards gave Verstappen two 10-second time penalties for his driving in Mexico City, where he twice was deemed to have forced Lando Norris off track. Following comments from 1996 world champion Damon Hill that one of the moves amounted to “silly driving,” Verstappen dismissed criticism from those he is not close to.

“I don’t listen to those individuals, I just do my thing,” Verstappen said. “I’m a three-time world champion. I think I know what I’m doing.

“I’ve heard [criticism of his approach] before in my career. It’s my 10th year in Formula 1. Some people are just a bit biased and I mean — I get it, it’s fine. But it’s not my problem at the end of the day. I just continue with my life and I keep performing.”

Verstappen says he does take onboard advice from people he trusts, but believes some pundits’ opinions are irrelevant given the number of races and titles he has already won.

“[I listen to] people that are objective and close to me and not just there to stir… I can’t say the word because I’ll probably get another [fine],” he said. “Apparently it only counts for me anyway, because after the race in Mexico, someone was swearing — I didn’t hear anything from it! So, it’s better I don’t swear again.

“But some people are just being very annoying and I know who these people are. I don’t really pay a lot of attention to them anyway and I think I’ve got to this stage in my career with the right people supporting me and making my own decisions. Yeah, so I think I know what I’m doing.”

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After being penalized twice in Mexico City but seeing Norris pick up a penalty at Circuit of The Americas, Verstappen said there is no obvious fix to the situation surrounding racing guidelines and that there will always be debates over what is or isn’t fair.

“I think it’s not that straightforward. Clearly, even between how many seconds [penalty] that you get,” he said. “So, sometimes they work for you, sometimes they work against you.

“I think it’s never going to be perfect because even if you remove rules, then you get into a battle, then you want more rules because it’s not clear what is allowed or not. Then when you have too many rules, you want less rules. It just keeps on going left and right all the time.

“Do I think it’s overregulated? Probably yes. In general, the rulebook is only getting bigger and bigger every single year, I don’t think that’s always the right way forward.”