Max Verstappen might be dominating F1 with his fourth world title, but 2024 hasn’t been smooth sailing when it comes to dealing with race officials. The Dutch champion has faced some pretty tough calls from the stewards – tougher than what other drivers might get for similar moves.
Juan Pablo Montoya, who knows a thing or two about F1 politics from his racing days, thinks there’s definitely some bias in how penalties get handed out.
“I do agree there’s always been inconsistency,” Montoya told Instant Casino.
He didn’t name names, but his point was clear: “If the FIA don’t like you, what happens is that if you’re penalised for an incident, the next time you’re there, 90 percent of the time even if you’re innocent, they’re going to penalise you because you have previous history.”
We saw this play out at the Qatar Grand Prix, where Verstappen lost pole position after officials said he blocked George Russell – even though neither driver was on a fast lap at the time.
The drama didn’t stop there.
The very next race in Abu Dhabi, Verstappen was still fuming about what he saw as unfair treatment, especially after getting hit with a 20-second penalty in Mexico.
Montoya broke it down with a simple comparison: “It’s like if you’ve stolen some money and you go to jail, you leave jail, money goes missing somewhere, and the next time a cop catches you, they’re going to assume you did it. That’s the deal.”
According to Montoya, once stewards form an opinion about a driver, it’s really hard to shake it off. “In their mind, they cannot erase what you did before. You get a reputation. Even if you already paid the penalty.”
