Jos Verstappen grills FIA after ‘ridiculous’ Max Verstappen community service order

Jos Verstappen had little positive to say about the FIA, after the governing body penalised Max Verstappen in their swearing clampdown.

The Singapore Grand Prix marked the first race weekend since FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem called for swearing in Formula 1 to be tackled, and the first driver to fall foul of that initiative, before the on-track action had even begun, was the F1 2024 Drivers’ Championship leader Max Verstappen .

FIA Max Verstappen penalty draws Jos Verstappen ire

Having sworn in reference to his Red Bull RB20 during the Thursday press conference in Singapore, the FIA ordered Max to carry out “some work of public interest”, essentially community service, which led to the Dutchman keeping his answers very short in the FIA press conferences which followed, while he held his own media briefings outside of the room.

Max went as far as to say this spat “for sure” influences his future in the series, and his father Jos is also highly unimpressed with the actions of the FIA.

“I think that is the most ridiculous thing,” Jos told Autosport in reference to Max’s “work of public interest” order from the FIA.

Jos did not stop there, also criticising the FIA as an organisation.

“I don’t think the FIA is doing a very good job,” Jos claimed.

“But I won’t say too much about this!”

Jos in that assessment also pointed towards the situation which unfolded at the Rally Chile, where WRC icon Sebastien Ogier took a page out of Max’s playbook after being handed a suspended €30,000 fine at the previous round in Greece, Ogier having complained about the short intervals between stages creating visibility issues.

“It is annoying to see that the sport never learns,” Ogier had said.

“We ask. We know that we are going to have dust. There is hanging dust. They say no. What do you have in your head? Nothing. It’s crazy.”

And Ogier was saying precious little to the television media in Chile, after those comments were deemed a breach of Article 12.2.1.f of the FIA International Sporting Code, which relates to “any words, deeds or writings that have caused moral injury or loss to the FIA, its bodies, its members or its executive officers, and more generally on the interest of motorsport and on the values defended by the FIA”, triggering the suspended fine.

Ogier later claimed on WRC’s live coverage of Rally Chile that “we have been told by the top of the FIA to shut our mouths.”

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Max’s penalty drew a strong response from Alex Wurz – chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association – who claimed hypocrisy due to how ex-Haas team boss Guenther Steiner was lauded for his F-bomb moments which appeared on Netflix’s hit F1 docuseries Drive to Survive.

“One of the questions that comes to mind most often is: How many lifetimes would Guenther Steiner have to do community service, and he was glorified with his F-word in Netflix, which is broadcast worldwide,” Wurz told ORF.

“So in that respect, you ask yourself, what is really the message, what is behind it? And that is simply too harsh a punishment.”

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