Max Verstappen is a proud Dutchman and will not take any disrespect towards his country. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner got a taste of the 26-year-old’s patriotism when he inadvertently flipped the Dutch Flag on a game show “upside down“.
The 2023 season ended just a week ago, and Red Bull accomplished “all their missions“. In Verstappen’s words, it was simply lovely, and it earned them some time to relax. As a result, the trio of Verstappen, Horner, and Sergio Perez took up a challenge that one of their sponsors, Rokt, issued. They also had the company of Rokt’s CEO, Bruce Buchanan.
The four of them played a challenge where they had to match blocks of Red Bull race winners, countries, and years in which they won a race in those countries. Verstappen and Perez were in one team, and they finished first before Horner and Buchanan.
One of those blocks had the Dutch Flag, and when Max saw Horner had put it in a flipped position, he playfully slammed him. In a YouTube video of the challenge, he exclaimed, “Woah, Woah, Woah! The Dutch Flag is upside down!”
The British boss responded to this by shifting the blame to Buchanan. He said, “He said ‘Who won in France?'” The game involved the faces of Sebastian Vettel, Verstappen and Perez. Meanwhile, the race countries were China, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, and Azerbaijan.
Besides the flag flipping, Verstappen was sharp in pointing out some factual inconsistencies in the game. The 26-year-old mentioned how no RBR driver won in Italy in 2019. Meanwhile, he also cited how Horner was wrong by claiming Perez won in Baku in 2022. Regardless, this is not the first time that accuracy about flags is a point of contention in F1.
F1’s slip-ups with flags ft. Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, and Sergio Perez
Even F1 has had multiple moments of slip-ups concerning flags, especially during podium ceremonies. Earlier this season, the F1 organizers made a mistake when Charles Leclerc stepped onto the podium.
Instead of displaying the Monegasque flag, F1 swapped it with the Dutch flag. Meanwhile, they displayed the Monegasque flag instead of the Dutch flag for Verstappen.
Perez was lucky enough in Baku to have his Mexican flag on top in P1. However, even he witnessed such a slip-up three years ago in Turkey.
In what turned out to be a thrilling finish in Istanbul, the podium had Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton alongside the then Racing Point driver. Back then, F1 had switched the Mexican flag with the German.
Because of multiple such errors, F1 will look to be more careful with such formalities. Or else, it could be embarrassing to show the wrong flag or play the wrong national anthem at a Formula 1 podium ceremony that is watched by millions of fans around the world.
Leclerc experienced the latter happening when he won an F2 race in 2017. On that occasion, F1 played the French anthem instead of the Monegasque one, much to the annoyance of the 26-year-old.
