Max Verstappen gains new FIA swearing row ally in 'not over the limit' verdict

Max Verstappen did not cross the line with his actions punished by the FIA in Singapore, his community service order deemed “not nice”.

That is the opinion of former Sauber, Ferrari and Williams driver Felipe Massa, who has weighed in on the swearing saga which was sparked in Singapore between Verstappen and Formula 1’s governing body the FIA, after Verstappen used the term “f*****” in reference to his Red Bull RB20.

Felipe Massa launches staunch Max Verstappen defence

With FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem calling for a clampdown on swearing in Formula 1 ahead of the Singapore race weekend, Verstappen became the first driver punished after that outburst in the Thursday press conference, ordered to carry out “some work of public interest”, effectively amounting to community service.

Verstappen did not take kindly to that verdict, keeping his answers very short in subsequent press conferences, before holding his own media sessions outside of the room. He also suggested that this saga “for sure” factored into his thinking regarding his F1 future.

And Massa does not believe that Verstappen crossed the line.

“In life, in sport, you have a limit for what you can say and in whatever situation,” Massa told RacingNews365.

“What happened to Max, he didn’t pass the limit.”

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Verstappen called the situation “super silly”, adding: “If you can’t really be yourself to the fullest, then it’s better not to speak.

“At the end of the day, that’s what no one wants because then you become a robot, and that’s not how you should be going about it in the sport.”

And to that point, Massa believes that Verstappen’s punishment is not justified, also arguing that Formula 1 cannot lose “funny” and “crazy things” when it comes to the drivers in on-track battle.

“When you have some fights there are some words and whatever you know, even some bad words,” Massa continued. “Sometimes that is part of the sport. It’s part of the condition, the pressure, whenever things happen in a race.

“In football, you make a bad tackle on another player, if he has a microphone by his mouth, things will come out, and maybe not in a perfect way.

“But what’s happening is too much, you know. The sport needs to have a way of [allowing] funny things, even crazy things which belong to the fights [on track].

“You cannot really do that. It was not nice what happened to Max with this punishment that Max had, and whatever, you know, all the drivers can have so he’s not part of too much.”

Lewis Hamilton, a former title rival of Verstappen and Massa, has also defended Verstappen in this FIA swearing row and urged him not to serve that community service punishment.

“I think it’s a bit of a joke, to be honest,” said Hamilton. “This is the pinnacle of the sport, mistakes are made.

“I certainly wouldn’t be doing it [serving the punishment] and I hope Max doesn’t do it.”

With six rounds of F1 2024 to go, a title battle is brewing, with McLaren’s Lando Norris having further reduced Verstappen’s Drivers’ Championship lead to 52 points with a dominant victory in Singapore.

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