Leclerc Escapes Harsh Penalty & Verstappen Reacts to FIA Decision
Nov.2 - The FIA has given Charles Leclerc a more lenient penalty than Max Verstappen for a nearly identical faux-pas.
For his 'F-word' uttered in the Thursday FIA press conference in Singapore recently, triple world champion Verstappen was sentenced to a day of community service.
But then after the Mexican GP last Sunday, in the post-race FIA press conference, Charles Leclerc also said "f*ck" - before immediately recognising his error and apologising.
F1's governing body was silent on the matter until Friday at Interlagos, where the Ferrari driver was summoned to the stewards. Leclerc was issued with a 10,000 euros fine, half of which is suspended for a full year.
"What Leclerc did was worse than what I did," Verstappen responded. "It was a much more important meeting with the media, with more people present.
"But, you know, I'm not going to waste any more of my time on this. It is what it is."
In its ruling, the stewards noted that Leclerc had been asked a "somewhat leading question" about how he felt whilst almost losing control of his Ferrari in Mexico.
"In response, Leclerc used coarse language being the accurate recollection of what he thought to himself at the time," the FIA said. "Leclerc immediately realised his error and apologised."
The stewards also noted that in his hearing, Leclerc "expressed his regret for his momentary lack of judgment".
F1 pundit Kees van de Grint, a former Bridgestone and Ferrari engineer, is not impressed with the FIA's swearing clampdown.
"I don't like the F-word either," he told Viaplay, "but that happens spontaneously. You're allowed to make a mistake.
"Rules are rules, but to start talking about this again days later? What is this all about?"
Former F1 driver Christijan Albers agrees.
"I'm also completely done with it," said the Dutchman. "It's a great season, and all we're talking about is idiotic track limits and that swearing is not allowed."
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If only Max knew prior to the Singapore GP Thursday press conference that merely apologizing would be a mitigating factor.
A decent decision from the Fia would have been to say A, dont apologize and get X , or Apologize and get Y, what we dont know is whether he was given the option, However knowing Maxes stubbornness and Binmans "machete first" attitude and deal with the fall out later style, even this sensible solution probably wouldn't have worked
With your years of experience at dealing out justice Strop you’re the man for the job. Sadly life is more and more ruled by trivia mainly to disguise incompetence and ignorance amongst our rulers.
Second thoughts you would have to drastically curtail your disgraceful and slanderous abuse of the great Darcy Bussel.
It is nice my legal experience is recognized by some,on your second point I have checked with the real Darcy bussell and shes fine about it , in fact shes a Reb Bull fan.
However there are bigger things brewing my Hollywood contacts inform me 2 as yet un-named senior F1 personnal have been served with cease and desist letters by a large American corporations legal dept- more details will come out over time.
Lando,, Oscar v, s, c max gets a penalty, what a load of shite. At least Lando knows now that he has a baby sitter.
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