Max Verstappen ‘exploiting guidelines’ verdict amid Lewis Hamilton complaints

Max Verstappen is the “master” of exploiting Formula 1’s racing guidelines after the Red Bull driver escaped a penalty despite a “dive bomb” on Lewis Hamilton in Mexico.

It irked Hamilton, who was the only driver penalised at the Mexico City Grand Prix despite several drivers, including Verstappen, cutting off the first chicane in the opening laps.

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton went wheel-to-wheel in Mexico

Hamilton was running in third place when he was hit with a 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage following a wheel-to-wheel battle with former title rival Verstappen.

Having already banged wheels at Turn 1, Hamilton locked up and ran wide as the pair continued their fight into Turn 4. He made his way back onto the track ahead of Verstappen and was penalised for gaining an advantage.

The Ferrari driver wasn’t happy with the penalty and called out F1 stewards for making decisions that “steer careers” and “can decide results of championships”, and doing it behind closed doors.

“There isn’t any clarity, and I think that’s probably a part of the bigger issue – transparency and accountability. Also, kind of the secrecy that the decisions are made in the background,” he explained.

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But according to former F1 driver Chandhok, it’s about more than the stewards; it’s also about knowing Formula 1’s racing guidelines. And when it comes to that, Verstappen is a “master”.

He avoided a penalty for dive-bombing Hamilton at Turn 1 as the stewards all but blamed the seven-time World Champion for not leaving Verstappen space as the Dutchman’s “front axle was clearly in front of [Hamilton’s] mirror”.

“When the guidelines came out,” Chandhok told Sky F1, “it was kind of put forward as a live document that would keep evolving, and with dialogue from the drivers and teams. But it’s not actually changed as the season’s unfolded, we should say.

“At the moment, Verstappen is the master of driving to the guidelines. He’s exploiting the guidelines to the fullest extent.

“He absolutely dive bombed down the inside of Lewis Hamilton into Turn One. They made a bit of contact, and Lewis ended up running wide.

“But the point is, in the guidelines, all it says is about positioning from the braking zone, or the turn-in, to the apex of the corner. It doesn’t say anything from the apex, the exit, and Max is exploiting that.”

Hamilton received a bit more sympathy from Chandhok’s fellow pundit, Jamie Chadwick.

The triple W Series champion says that while there are guidelines in place, common sense also needs to prevail in such a situation.

“I understand from Lewis’s point of view,” Chadwick said. “I think the driving guidelines is where I think things have got confusing recently.

“As a driver, you look at a guideline and you drive to that, and I think from their point of view, they’re not doing anything wrong as such.

“But equally, from our point of view and spectators, there’s almost an element of common sense that can be bought into it, and most people can see what they think should be a penalty.

“Not everyone’s going to agree, but if most people could see it, then I think, yeah, it should be sort of analysed in a way that sort of allows for common sense from a racing driver’s perspective, because I think that’s what we all were seeing.”

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