Max Verstappen is just one penalty point away from a suspension. During the Spanish GP, he was handed three penalty points for the incident with George Russell. If he is penalized again during the upcoming Canadian GP, he will have to sit out one race. Former driver Juan Pablo Montoya believes that the FIA is ‘praying’ that Verstappen behaves – many Dutch fans would boycott the subsequent Austrian GP if he does not participate.
In the run-up to the race weekend in Montreal, Verstappen has accumulated 11 penalty points. The first points will not expire until June 30, exactly 12 months after they were issued. This means that he cannot afford any more penalty points during the next two Grands Prix. Once the counter reaches 12, the FIA is obliged to suspend him for one race. However, Montoya wonders whether the organization would let it go that far – after all, Verstappen is of great commercial value to Formula 1.
‘No one would then go to Austria’
“The question is whether Max Verstappen actually has to skip a race if he gets a twelfth penalty point,” Montoya said in his podcast for W Radio Colombia. “Suppose he would have to miss the Austrian GP. 90% of the spectators there are Dutch. No one would then go to that race,” speculated the Colombian. “You don’t know how the audience will react. Will they, for example, sabotage the race?”
Montoya does not rule out that the FIA will take measures in advance to prevent such a scenario. “It wouldn’t surprise me if the rules were adjusted before it even gets that far,” he noted. “From a sporting point of view, they should of course punish him, but that would create a headache that you wouldn’t wish on anyone,” he joked. “Really, at the FIA they will be praying that Max Verstappen behaves,” Montoya concluded.
