© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
After receiving a €50,000 fine for touching Lewis Hamilton’s rear wing in parc ferme, Max Verstappen decided to joke about how insignificant it is for him.
After Friday’s Brazilian Grand Prix Qualifying Max Verstappen touched his own and then Lewis Hamilton’s rear wing under parc ferme conditions, which is not allowed.
To make matters worse, the FIA was investigating that very rear wing for a DRS infringement. However, after much deliberation, the FIA decided to get Verstappen off easy by handing him a €50,000 fine, but no grid penalties.
In a “classy” move, the Dutch driver decided to make fun of the FIA and their fine after the Qualifying Sprint Race.
“It’s quite a big fine, so I hope they have a nice dinner and a lot of wine,” Vestappen said.
“I hope good, expensive wine, that would be nice. They can invite me for dinner as well, I will pay for that dinner too.”
Valtteri Bottas, who was sitting next to Verstappen at the post sprint quali press conference, asked the Dutchman if he will have to pay the fine, or will it be on Red Bull’s tab?
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“I do have to pay. So that’s a little bit less FIFA points for me on my laptop.”
Max then explained what he was looking for on Mercedes’ rear wing.
“Well I was clearly looking at the wing! So, yeah, you can see on the video what I did exactly. I was just looking at how much the rear wing was flexing at that point…
“Of course, there are still things to look into because at a certain speed it seems like the wing is flexing [down] and, of course, at the beginning of the season we all had to change the rear wing a bit because of the back off [of the wing under aerodynamic load].
“But it seems like something is still backing off over there. So that’s why I went and had a look.”
“It had nothing to do with the DRS or what [the stewards] were looking at,” Verstappen concluded.
Perhaps if fined drivers are laughing at their fines, the FIA might consider being more strict when penalizing them in the future.
