Martin Brundle believes Max Verstappen escaped a clear penalty in Formula 1‘s Mexico City Grand Prix as he proposed a solution to clamp down on corner-cutting.
The start at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was frantic, with four drivers – Lando Norris, both Ferraris and Verstappen – entering the opening turn side by side.
Norris and Lewis Hamilton remained on track, but both Verstappen and Charles Leclerc ran wide across the run-off. However, the stewards elected not to intervene.
Brundle, speaking on Sky F1’s The F1 Show, was left unimpressed.
“Max should have had a penalty, because if you put your car on the far left in four abreast, it will go on the kerb. But Max had no intention. You can see Max accelerate,” he said.
“Really skilful driving through the grass, I must say. But Max made no effort whatsoever to take turns one, two or three, and that should have been a penalty.”
The former F1 driver suggested the incident required a stronger message to ensure that a repeat
“I might even have given somebody doing what Max did, a drive-through, as a proper deterrent to stop the silliness, because then it all gets chaotic,” he added.
Brundle accused Verstappen of exploiting the grass run-off to gain an advantage, while also contending that Leclerc was fortunate to escape the stewards’ wrath.
“Max took the risk on the outside, knowing full well he could just bury the throttle and carry on,” he highlighted.
“The sort of thing if the fireproof boot had been on the other foot, Max would have been screaming about on the radio, saying he had no intention of making that corner. He didn’t.
“For me, at least Charles made an attempt at Turn 1, didn’t like the look of the way it was shaping up, so just ignore Turn 2. And that, for me, was a 10-second penalty.”
While Brundle was calling for penalties, Verstappen defended his actions. He said he had no choice but to go straight on after the car began “bottoming out” on the kerb.
“I had a very good start,” Verstappen explained to media including Motorsport Week.
“Then you just follow the slipstream three-wide, four-wide. I mean, just following, of course, what the car next to you is doing.
“So I had to move left, left, left. And then at one point, of course, you’re on the kerb and then I started bottoming out on the kerb. So that was quite hectic.
“And then a bit of rallying in between Turns 1 and 2. Yeah, that was quite fun.”
Brundle can understand anger from drivers
George Russell, one of the drivers compromised at the start, branded Verstappen “a f***ing joke” over team radio, frustrated by what he viewed as lenient officiating.
Brundle said he understood the anger from others on the track.
“I completely can understand those drivers that were minding their business actually staying on the racetrack, going like, ‘Well, hang on, I’m losing out here. I might as well have just made my own race track up in the first few corners and gain some places.’”
Despite the debate, the stewards stood by their decision not to penalise either Verstappen or Leclerc, which Brundle regarded as a missed chance to “set a proper deterrent”.
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