Max Verstappen Incurs Wrath of Italian Media over Ferrari Accusations

Published 11/06/2019, 12:34 PM EST

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If Max Verstappen ever entertained the thought of racing for Ferrari in the future, he can forget about it. After some inflammatory comments insinuating that Ferrari were cheating, he was torn apart by the Italian media.

Their ‘friendly’ advice to Verstappen was ‘to keep his mouth shut or bring evidence of cheating claims to light’. Following Ferrari’s poor performance at the Circuit of the Americas, Verstappen decided to kick them while they were down.

The Dutchman quipped that Scuderia Ferrari’s drop-off was down to the FIA’s Technical Directive regarding fuel flow. He then suggested that it happen because the Italian marquee “stopped cheating”.

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He told Ziggo Sport: “That’s what happens when you stop cheating, of course. But yeah, they had a good look at it. So now we have to keep a close eye on it, of course.”

Naturally, it infuriated Ferrari and Charles Leclerc to no end and they responded quickly. While Sebastian Vettel elected to not comment on the matter, the same could not be said of the Italian media.

via Imago

“Simple one: Motor racing is not politics and opinions don’t count,” reported Autosprint.

“Only the truth counts and there are specific, credible and quick procedures to ascertain it. In the racing world, if someone believes that a rival is cheating, you can be sure that two seconds later he will make a complaint (to the FIA).

“But for now, before checking, there is only unsportsmanlike behaviour from Verstappen who said a very serious thing without having or providing any supporting evidence. Perhaps the best thing for a driver would be to keep quiet and keep his foot down, leaving it to others to investigate these alleged delicate matters.

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“In football, an episode of this kind would be punished harshly, with a lot of money and disciplinary consequences. It would be good if in F1 things worked in the same way. If Red Bull has something to say about Ferrari, do it now or hold it forever.”

Meanwhile FormulaPassion’s Alberto Antonini was of the opinion that Verstappen should take a page out of Lewis Hamilton’s book.

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He said, “I only note that when Vettel won at Spa in 2018, the current World Champion said that the Ferrari driver had resorted to all his ‘tricks’; which does not necessarily mean an accusation of illegality and is a far cry, apart from language barriers, from the ‘cheating’ used by Verstappen.”

Antonini then proceeded to take a dig at Verstappen, who is still without a championship in his fifth season. However, it was worth noting that no such wild accusations were heard from Toto Wolff and Mercedes.

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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