Max Verstappen trait likened to an F1 legend after Saudi Arabian GP

Max Verstappen has been praised for his “unbelievable” professionalism and maturity in the aftermath of his controversial penalty in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Red Bull driver Verstappen was given a five-second time penalty for going off track and gaining an advantage while battling with Oscar Piastri for the lead at the start of the race.

The Dutchman served the penalty during his pitstop and rejoined the track in second position, behind Piastri, and was unable to close back the gap to his McLaren rival.

While clearly upset with the stewards’ decision, the four-time F1 champion remained tight-lipped about the sanction in post-race interviews, dodging all questions from the media.

He claimed that “people can't handle the full truth” and there is a risk of his words being “twisted” or interpreted differently.

It was this response that earned him the praise of F1 pundit Peter Windsor, who said Verstappen was correct in not expressing his feelings about the penalty in public.

“I was worried that when he crossed the line he was going to say, ‘That got away from me, I should have won that race’, but he didn't,” Windsor said on a YouTube podcast.

“He was unbelievably professional, Jackie Stewart-like, and that was very impressive.

“You can say it's a big big thing for Max to be this mature now and to be this intelligent and not to be listening to all the chattering noise out there."

He added: “The only thing he can do is follow your own beliefs and understandings of Formula 1, relate Formula 1 to the history of the sport and all the precedents been set in the past and what is logical anyway.

“That's all you can do, and that's what Max does, he quite clearly expressed himself and thought he did the right thing as a racing driver into turn 1. The team made it quite clear that it was a good idea not to talk about it anymore and Max immediately went with that.”

Windsor described the penalty as lenient, while also highlighting how the rules for wheel-to-wheel racing are sometimes not clear; in this case, polesitter Verstappen could not have been asked to hand the position back since Piastri wasn’t leading the race before the incident.

But while Verstappen was in the wrong at Turn 1, the former Williams team manager said it was typical of an F1 driver not to accept responsibility for an incident.

“He is a racing driver and he made the pass the way he tried to and got the lead,” Windsor explained.

“So of course he is never going to say oh I made a big mistake. He is Max Verstappen, Why Would he admit that it was his fault any more than Oscar Piastri would. They are racing drivers.

“Max was absolutely correct when he crossed the line. He said, ‘It was what it was, let's take positives from the race, we finished second, we got pole, the car was much better on tyre management than we thought, got a lot to build on, thanks very much guys, let's get on.’

“You don't want to irritate the FIA knowing they are quite difficult sometimes. You just want to stay quiet and calm it down and he said what he said on the radio at that time: ‘It was my corner and he would have driven into me if I hadn't taken avoiding action, we know that’.”