When not racing, Max Verstappen loves to spend his time in sim racing and streaming it to his fans. During one of his live streams, the Red Bull driver found himself in an unwanted circumstance where his friends were mocking Xavi, Charles Leclerc’s race engineer. The act was not taken well by Ferrari fans, who criticized the defending champion.
Xavi Marcos Padros has been the subject of widespread criticism due to his mismanagement and botched-up strategies. There have been many cases of miscommunication between him and Leclerc that have led to the Monegasque losing out on important points.
Charles was not happy during the safety car, as Hamilton came out marginally in front after pitting…
Xavi: “Try to push for Hamilton, he just pitted.”
Charles: “Xavi! You need to tell me that before!”
Xavi: “Copy.”
Charles: “No but come on!” pic.twitter.com/DdqhVseXzJ
— Ferrari News 🐎 (@FanaticsFerrari) March 19, 2023
Fans have been demanding Xavi’s departure from the Maranello outfit for a long time now. However, the same fans came to his defense when Max Verstappen and his friends mocked the race engineer by imitating his accent.
Max Verstappen comes under fire from Ferrari fans
The whole incident happened when Verstappen was streaming one of his gaming sessions with his friends. Midway through the stream, his friends started to comment, “We are checking! We are checking! Plan A Plan A, no no no, Plan E, Plan E!,” mimicking the way that Xavi speaks, with a heavy Spanish accent.
we r checking we r checking…
max: going hard tyre!
plan e .. plan e!!THEYRE MOCKING FERRARI BOARD RADIOS 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/YEDG45JoF0
— nini (@SCUDERIAFEMBOY) June 21, 2023
Ferrari fans, who were furious by the troll, spoke out against the whole ordeal. A fan mentioned on Twitter that it is absolutely acceptable to criticize Xavi, but it is not acceptable that a Formula 1 driver would take part in mocking his accent.
I don’t know criticize Xavi all you want but mocking him and his accent on a stream is extremely low specially coming from an f1 driver
— Cande (@candeleclerc16) June 21, 2023
Another fan commented that there is no excuse for someone who makes fun of people for having an accent.
i will never, ever, ever find excuses for someone who mocks people for having an accent. some people don’t know the struggle of learning a foreign language and worrying about your pronunciation.
criticise Xavi all you want for his défaillances, but leave his accent alone
— emi 🏒 (@maraneIlo) June 22, 2023
A Twitter user commented that they do not understand how mocking someone’s accent can be considered funny.
Since when is making fun of mimicking someone’s accent funny? You’re a professional driver?? First Lando’s friend and now him weird behaviour honestly https://t.co/ozb7iXWCVt
— Izzah (@cobhale) June 21, 2023
Another user mentioned that it is not acceptable that Xavi is being mocked just because of his accent.
non fa ridere il fatto che stiano prendendo per il culo l’accento di xavi just saying https://t.co/c1jfzuVJOf
— ale⁷ 🏎 (@formultae) June 21, 2023
Another fan commented that it is easy for a top driver of the top team to pick on a team that has been struggling. It is almost like a bully at school.
The top driver on the top team in the top car making fun of a team that’s struggling like hell lol it’s the big fast bully at school picking on the slowest little kid like c’mon pick on someone your own size and leave us alone lmaooo https://t.co/yG8NBgAIPa
— 👻 (@Chocohoneysuga) June 21, 2023
Ferrari and their botched strategies
Ferrari has been widely criticized for their messed up strategies. The latest example of this came at the 2023 Canadian GP during Qualifying.
The rain intervened during Q2, which caused a dry line. Leclerc noticed it and immediately asked for slick tires. However, Xavi asked him to set a time on the inters after denying his ask.
Leclerc: We need to box for soft.
Xavi: Stay out
Leclerc: No, we need soft.
Xavi: Negative, we need one time lap than you can pit for soft. #CanadianGP
— Sembalap F1 (@SembalapF1) June 17, 2023
Later, when he came in to put on the slicks, it started raining again. All the drivers had set a faster time on the slick tires and Leclerc couldn’t, leading to his elimination from Q2.
This is one of many examples where Ferrari made huge errors in strategy and the drivers had to suffer. If the Prancing Horses want to return to the top of the podium, they would have to improve their decision-making manifold.
