Max Verstappen wants F1 rules to change and teams ‘banned’ after Las Vegas GP penalty.

Max Verstappen has hit out at the FIA’s current rules at the Las Vegas Grand Prix in a show of support for one of his rivals.

Max Verstappen, a driver for Red Bull, has argued that his rival Carlos Sainz did not deserve to be penalized ten places for a track problem that was not his fault. He has also called for a change in the rules to prevent teams from voting on penalties. After Sainz ran over a manhole cover, Ferrari was compelled to make repairs to their vehicle, resulting in the infraction.

Mercedes would not grant a reprieve to teams if they were given the option to vote on whether to punish Sainz for a problem that the track, not him or the team, caused because doing so would help their rivals, according to a previous statement from Sky Sports F1.

Though there is no such rule in the regulations that suggests teams would have a say on such matters, Verstappen wants it to stay that way as they may have ulterior motives while the FIA would remain impartial.

But Verstappen believes that teams should not vote on such decisions and Sainz should have been let off by the governing body. “The rules have to change for that,” Verstappen said when asked about Sainz’s punishment which will see him drop from second to 12th on Sunday. “It’s the same if you get taken out and have a big accident. You can lose parts of engine, energy store, all these kinds of things.

“So first of all that needs to change and these things can be taken into consideration that you can take a free penalty or not, it will not be counted.

“Besides, I think teams should not be allowed to have a say in these kind of things because for sure they are going to vote against that. I do think it’s very harsh on Carlos but in this political environment we are in of course every team thinks about themselves and they are going to say ‘no, he has to take the penalty’.”

Ferrari asked the stewards to let them replace Sainz’s energy store using a new component without incurring a penalty, but their request was denied despite the FIA’s attempts to search the rules for a reason not to punish the team.

“That’s what the stewards note in the event that they had the position to concede a discrediting in what they believe for this situation to moderate, strange and lamentable conditions, they would have done as such, but the guidelines don’t permit such activity,” the stewards said.

Sainz, in the interim, was dazed that he was rebuffed for an issue that was not his shortcoming. “Sadly, as the meeting got done, the group conveyed to me that I was assuming a 10-position framework punishment for something that I have no shortcoming, and the group have no issue,” he said.

“That altered totally my attitude and my perspective toward the end of the week and how it will go from here onward. I’m frustrated and in dismay with everything going on. You won’t see me exceptionally cheerful this end of the week.”