Formula 1 Mexican GP

Verstappen: "Nothing changes for me" after F1 racing guidelines talk

Verstappen and Sainz reflect on the FIA's discussions with the drivers over Formula 1's racing rules

Filip Cleeren

Edited: Oct 27, 2024, 3:05 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Max Verstappen says "nothing changes" for him after Formula 1 drivers and the FIA sat down to discuss tweaks to the series' racing guidelines.

In Friday's driver meeting at the Mexican Grand Prix, drivers were seeking answers from the governing body on how racing incidents are judged and whether F1's current guidelines on driver standards are still fit for purpose.

The trigger for the discussion was Verstappen's fight with Lando Norris at last week's US GP, in which McLaren driver Norris was penalised for overtaking Verstappen off the track, but the Red Bull man went unpunished for pushing both cars off in the first place.

It was discussed whether Verstappen should have been punished as well, or whether the Dutchman was in the right but exploiting a loophole that went against fair racing.

Following discussions, the FIA agreed to revisit the guidelines in time for the Qatar GP at the end of November.

But, as far as world champion Verstappen is concerned, he won't change his approach until told otherwise.

"For me, in terms of racing, nothing changes," he said. "Look, the rules can always be better, you should always strive for that, right? It's never perfect. I understand that.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, battle into turn 1

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

"But I think, where the problem starts is that on that track you can very easily just drive offline. And if there's just a gravel pit, you never get into that situation either, because the car on the outside never brakes that late as there's obviously the risk of going off. And the same on the inside, because then you always go in more carefully, so you never have that scenario.

"On certain circuits with a lot of run-off that is a problem and of course the FIA sees that too. They might also want to, like in Austria, put in a few gravel traps. That does help."

Asked if he felt there was a move by rival drivers aimed specifically at curbing how he races, Verstappen said: 'No. I just think they want to know themselves [what the rules are]."

Ferrari's Mexico GP polesitter Carlos Sainz is hopeful that the solutions the FIA is working on for Qatar will improve the racing and lead to less confusion among drivers about what is allowed and what isn't.

"I think it was a positive, productive meeting," he said. "A lot of drivers opened up about how they felt about each situation and what we think is the best way forward.

"How you interpret the rules and those driving guidelines that the stewards are going to apply penalties with, they're still the same coming into this weekend and probably I think they will be applied in a similar manner.

"But I think in Qatar we will have some solutions that hopefully will offer a better understanding for the driver and better racing in general. Hopefully it should be better."

Additional reporting by Erwin Jaeggi

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Russell happy for 2024 sacrifices after "unnecessary" crashes

Next article Marko: Perez's expected upturn "didn't materialise" after Mexico Q1 exit

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Robert Kubica announces exit from AF Corse’s privateer Hypercar in WEC

WEC

WEC WEC

Monza

22 min

Robert Kubica announces exit from AF Corse’s privateer Hypercar in WEC

Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

48 min

Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP

Max Verstappen "needs to understand what happened" after "night and day" F1 comeback in Brazilian GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

49 min

Max Verstappen "needs to understand what happened" after "night and day" F1 comeback in Brazilian GP

LIVE: NASCAR Cup season finale at Homestead lap-by-lap updates

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

1 h

LIVE: NASCAR Cup season finale at Homestead lap-by-lap updates

Feature

Discover prime content

"He really wanted it" – why Russell was furious over aborted Brazil ‘pole’ lap

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Stuart Codling

"He really wanted it" – why Russell was furious over aborted Brazil ‘pole’ lap

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 Brazilian GP

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 Brazilian GP

How F1’s rules got to be so complex

Formula 1

By Pat Symonds

How F1’s rules got to be so complex

A water park, “not a rock star” and Toto Wolff’s words – Is Kimi Antonelli really a different F1 champion?

Formula 1

By Ronald Vording

A water park, “not a rock star” and Toto Wolff’s words – Is Kimi Antonelli really a different F1 champion?

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts