Max Verstappen has joked that he needs to have “the book in the car” in order to keep track of the FIA Formula 1 driving guidelines.
Those guidelines and the raft of penalties awarded over the US GP weekend were the main talking point in Mexico City on Thursday, with the incident involving Verstappen and Lando Norris generating different opinions from drivers.
Norris received a five-second penalty for going off-track and gaining an advantage, dropping him back to fourth behind Verstappen.
On Thursday McLaren requested a right of review, which will be heard by the FIA stewards today.
“I think we are getting to a stage where I almost need the book in the car,” said Verstappen. “That’s how it is. I mean, I think if you look, of course, over the years, the book has grown quite a lot, there are more and more rules.
“It is definitely over regulated. But then also, I can see the other point of view, if you take rules away, and then there is again an incident, [it will be] like, ‘Oh, we need more rules. We need to be strong on this.’
“It is always the same thing. In the past, we have maybe some lesser rules, and then you have the same argument. ‘We need to be strong on this or that.’ It’s always the same story.”
Verstappen also countered Norris’s suggestion that the RBR driver wouldn’t have made the corner and was attempting to ensure that he was ahead at the apex.
“Yeah, it’s quite impressive that people can read my mind,” he said. “It’s crazy. I mean, I always tried to make the corner. I didn’t want to look for shortcuts. I don’t even know what to answer.”
Asked if he will talk discuss the situation with Norris he said: “We always said that we wanted to race each other hard. That’s what we like to do.”
Verstappen also reflected on a tricky Austin race in which he couldn’t repeat his Saturday sprint winning form, and was vulnerable to attack from Norris.
“Yeah, it was quite a difficult second stint,” he said. “I mean, I lost a lot of grip on the front axle. It was very difficult to brake. And I think that’s what made my defence more difficult, because I knew that if I would brake a little bit too late, I could lock up, and I really didn’t have the front grip.
“It wasn’t easy for me out there. I think all in all, it was still a positive weekend for us, but still a few things, of course, that we want to do better to be in that fight, because I honestly believed going into the race, that I would be in the fight, and we weren’t.
“And so that wasn’t ideal, but at least it did show some promising signs that maybe we could be back in the fight.”
Regarding the value of the Austin upgrades he said: “It was definitely performance. The car felt a bit more in control, at least more balanced, and that’s what we were looking for as well.”
