Max Verstappen asserts that he was not really thinking anything ‘negative’ when he called the FIA steward Garry Connelly an ‘idiot’ and ‘Mongol’ after losing the podium.
The Dutch racer was furious after losing the hard-won podium at United States Grand Prix last weekend. He was given a five-second penalty for going off-track and overtaking Kimi Räikkönen during the last lap of the race.
He went to the Media stand and said one race steward is completely against him and is always punishing him, referring to steward Garry Connelly.
“It’s one idiot steward up there which always makes decisions against me,” Verstappen told Sky TV.
Later in the day while giving an interview to a Dutch TV channel he called Connelly a ‘Mongol’. Verstappen’s comments created a controversy, but the Dutchman says he was upset by the loss and his remarks were just emotional outbursts.
On Monday night in an interview on Peptalk, Verstappen clarified “Look, in the heat of the moment you say things, but of course, I didn’t mean anything bad,”
“At that moment, it just blurts out. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
Echoing Niki Lauda and Christian Horner’s suggestions, even Verstappen thinks it the time to re-look at review system in the light of the strong backlash from the fans and other people involved in the sport.
“I think more people want that [change of system],” he said. “I think it wasn’t correct, and it’s ridiculous that you can’t do anything against it.
“We’ll talk about it, but we need to see what’s right. I don’t have a clear answer to that right now.”
In spite of the focus on one steward, Verstappen does not see any value in having a one on one with Connelly.
“I don’t have anything to explain,” Verstappen said. “You can sit down with each other and talk for hours, but it doesn’t change anything.”
