“I’ve spent a bit of time with Nelson–more than the average person in general – and he’s definitely not a racist,” said Max Verstappen defending his ‘father-in-law’ Nelson Piquet. This was done after Piquet’s racist slurs against Lewis Hamilton began making rounds on the internet two years ago. However, the latest update (Senna Tribute at Imola) points towards another instance where the reigning world champion has sided with his girlfriend Kelly’s father, or was it an accidental blunder?

Four-time champion Sebastian Vettel led a track run at the Imola circuit on Thursday to commemorate the 30th-anniversary deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger. F1 drivers, along with several F2/F3 drivers, team principals, and various media personnel were present at the track run. The majority, except Verstappen and a few others, were pictured in Senna-themed t-shirts. The circus then went on to further the moment of commemoration at Tamburello, where Senna famously crashed in 1994.

However, Verstappen’s neglect of the Senna Forever T-shirt sparked a debate. It is no secret that Nelson and Ayrton didn’t get along very well. The former on occasions had made questionable remarks about the late driver. Verstappen’s neglect of the dress code combined with the history of Nelson with the late driver raised many eyebrows. A gossip page on Instagram uploaded pictures from the Senna tribute at Imola and captioned it, “Max avoiding conflicts with his father-in-law Nelson Piquet, or he just wasn’t warned about the specific attire 🤔, the driver was the only one on the grid who was uniformed with the Red bull team kit, the others wore a yellow t-shirt with “forever” written on it!” Fans were left divided on this. Let’s take a look at what they said.

Fans left divided looking for a reason for Max Verstappen’s miss

Imola is the venue of the most infamous race weekend of all time, the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. This year as F1 respectfully marks 30 years since the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at Imola. The legacy of Senna (a three-time world champion) was honored and commemorated on Thursday’s media day, all the drivers came together to pay tribute. But Max Verstappen’s dress code sparked a debate. The chatter began with people pointing out Max’s ignorance of the theme. One Instagram user wrote, “Why is Max not wearing it?”.

A few others chimed in saying, “This is weird of him” and “Disrespectful”

While it did look like he was the only one not wearing the tribute T-shirt in the sea of yellow, eagle-eyed users pointed at other possibilities. One user wrote, “He’s not even the only one not wearing a tribute shirt.”

Another pointed at Lewis Hamilton’s ex-teammate Valtteri Bottas, also not wearing it. They wrote, “I saw a picture with Bottas also not wearing the yellow shirt. Maybe Max wore it underneath his jacket..”, “Actually Bottas didn’t wear the t-shirt either.”

Though the reason for Verstappen not wearing the t-shirt is still unclear, possibilities of the act are multiple. It could have been a genuine blunder. What do you think is the reason behind Max’s omission?