Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko believes people should take Max Verstappen’s threats to walk away from Formula 1 seriously in the wake of his swearing row with the FIA.
Over the Singapore weekend, Verstappen was handed a community service punishment by motor racing’s governing body over using the F-word in an official FIA press conference while describing his Red Bull car behaviour.
The punishment followed a new push from FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to further clamp down on offensive language being broadcast on TV, something F1 had already been doing.
In response, Verstappen staged a protest over the remainder of the Singapore weekend, refusing to provide full answers to questions in FIA press conferences and instead holding his own media gatherings.
In those calls, he made thinly veiled threats that the FIA’s policies are sapping his enjoyment out of competing in F1, and would likely push him out the door sooner rather than later.
“I’m at a stage of my career where I don’t want to be dealing with this all the time. It’s really tiring,” he said.
“Of course, it’s great to have success and win races, but once you have accomplished all that, winning championships and races, then you want to just have a good time as well.
“If you have to deal with all these kinds of silly things: for me, that is not a way of continuing in the sport, that’s for sure.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, in the garage with Helmut Marko, Consultant, Red Bull Racing, Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com’s German sister publication Motorsport-Total, Red Bull’s Marko said his protege isn’t bluffing about leaving the series.
“You have to take Max seriously,” he said. “He has achieved a great deal, but it is important to him that he also enjoys the whole sport. If that is increasingly spoiled for him, then he is of a character that when he says: ‘Okay, that’s it.’
“He means it seriously, but I hope that the current situation won’t really cause him to retire soon.”
Marko felt the different stakeholders in the series are maintaining double standards, with former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner’s prolific swearing making him a cult hero on Netflix’s Drive to Survive series.
“Yes, that’s not understandable and there are double standards,” the Austrian nodded. “And on top of that, Max didn’t mean a person. He meant the car, an object, and he did it in a flippant way.
“Okay, maybe in an afternoon press conference, if it’s all going to be handled so strictly you’ll just take a different approach in the future. But it’s clearly over the top.”
Ahead of October’s US Grand Prix in Austin, the F1 drivers’ association GPDA and representatives from the FIA and F1 are set to hold private talks to air concerns, with Verstappen receiving backing from several of his colleagues over the matter.
Watch: Is Max Verstappen Ready to leave F1? – F1 Singapore GP Updates
