One of the biggest battles of the 2024 season has been between Max Verstappen and the FIA, who have penalized the Dutchman on various occasions. His latest clash with F1’s governing body occurred last weekend in Qatar when his pole position was taken away for allegedly driving ‘unnecessarily slowly’. This decision left most of the F1 community baffled.
Jolyon Palmer also expressed surprise at the FIA’s decision. Calling the incident a “non-event,” Palmer pointed out that George Russell, who claimed to be affected by Verstappen’s slow pace, was not on a push lap. This, he argued, meant Russell could not have been disadvantaged. As such, Palmer found no justification for the Red Bull driver to get a one-place grid penalty.
“If this was George on a push lap in qualifying, it is a slam dunk three-place grid penalty at least and it would be very poor driving,” the former F1 driver said on F1TV. “But he is not on his push lap and so for me, I am very surprised“.
Palmer added that it was convenient for the FIA to punish Verstappen. Since Russell had qualified just behind him, it was easy to simply swap positions by issuing what he described as a “very unusual” form of penalty. Had Russell qualified further down the grid, Palmer believes that the FIA would have taken no action against Verstappen.
The rage in Max Verstappen’s eyes
George Russell has said something in the stewards’ room that has made Max so angry.George has made the biggest mistake of his life; he has awakened Mad Max and will wish he’d never done so. pic.twitter.com/0qBPFCLDwI
— Marc (@433_marc) December 2, 2024
Since it was Russell who pushed for the penalty, it resulted in massive controversy as the 27-year-old stated that he lost all respect for the Briton, whom he referred to as “two-faced“. Unfortunately, it meant that Verstappen would end up losing the first pole position since the Austrian GP in June.
Verstappen and Red Bull had the last laugh
The setback seemed to motivate Verstappen and Red Bull more on Sunday. Despite starting behind Russell, Verstappen made short work of the Mercedes driver and overtook him in no time to claim the lead.
From then on, Verstappen did what he had mastered — controlling the race until the chequered flag. Although the penalty made no difference to the eventual result, with Verstappen recording his 63rd win at Lusail, the four-time champion and his Red Bull team did not forget the penalty he received before the race.
Race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, hilariously congratulated his driver by taking a sly dig at Russell — “You definitely did not drive unnecessarily slowly today,” he said on the team radio. He added, “Karma is a wonderful thing“.
With Russell only finishing fourth despite starting second, Lambiase felt the British driver got what he deserved after he pushed hard to get Verstappen penalized.
