Max Verstappen made ‘unacceptable’ comment about his Red Bull in Singapore, Anthony Davidson says

Follow us on Google Discover

Max Verstappen has endured one of the most frustrating spells of his Formula 1 career in recent months. He arrived at the Singapore Grand Prix in the midst of a seven-race winless drought.

This is hardly unprecedented for the Dutchman. He started his career in a midfield car at Toro Rosso and he had to contend with Mercedes’ prolonged monopoly after he joined Red Bull.

But there’s something uniquely difficult about a dominant driver surrendering his dominance. Lewis Hamilton, winner of six titles in seven years, has demonstrated that point.

Hamilton has only won two races in the last three seasons, and Verstappen is still a long way from those depths. But his current barren run was still unthinkable back in the spring.

After his serene victory at the Chinese GP, the Red Bull superstar had won four out of five in 2024 and 38 of the previous 49 overall. But now it’s unclear when his team will be in a position to regularly win races again.

Their current trajectory bodes poorly for 2025, when there will be minimal changes to the regulations. And then comes the uncertainty of 2026 as F1 enters a new era.

Anthony Davidson hits out at Max Verstappen over expletives at Singapore Grand Prix

Verstappen endured one of his trickiest weekends all year in Baku last time out. He lost out to Sergio Perez in qualifying for the first time all year – or, going further back, since Miami 2023.

He was on course to finish the race seventh, which would have been his poorest result of the season, but the late collision between Perez and Carlos Sainz promoted him to fifth. He retains a 59-point championship lead over Lando Norris.

Speaking in the pre-race press conference in Singapore, Verstappen said that the car was ‘f****d’ in Baku. FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem is clamping down on swearing, and these comments sparked an investigation.

Verstappen had to report to the stewards, who slapped him with the F1 equivalent of community service. Speaking on Sky Sports F1, former driver Anthony Davidson appeared to back the verdict.

He said: “There’s one thing losing your cool in the car. And then [there’s] being slack out of the car. And I think what we heard from Max and a few others through the weekend after it being announced… that’s unacceptable.”

Did Red Bull star Max Verstappen swear ‘deliberately’ in FIA press conference?

Also in the press conference, Verstappen said the FIA’s swearing restrictions would have no effect. Ben Sulayem’s concern is the impact on younger viewers but the world champion feels the influence of F1 drivers is overstated in this regard.

Journalist Andrew Benson suspects that Verstappen ‘deliberately’ cursed in the interview. In doing so, he issued an ‘aggressive’ response to Ben Sulayem.

F1 team radio messages are already censored to cut out expletives. Drivers have made the point that athletes in other sports don’t have their live reactions broadcast to the world.

The radio transmissions are central to the coverage. It’s unclear whether the production staff will start to filter out any messages that feature bad language, rather than simply bleeping them.