– Has Max Verstappen gone too far with his criticism of Formula 1? Of all people, Juan Pablo Montoya, who never held back during his own active career, is now calling for a race ban if Verstappen continues to criticize the premier class.
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“You have to respect the sport,” says Montoya in the Chequered Flag podcast of the BBC and emphasizes: “It’s okay if you don’t like the rules. But the way you talked about your livelihood and your own sport – there should be consequences for that.”
When asked what exactly he means by consequences, the seven-time Grand Prix winner replies: “Park him!” Loosely translated, that means Verstappen should be benched once. Or more clearly put: The FIA should suspend Verstappen.
Montoya suggests that Verstappen could be given penalty points for his statements. If a driver collects twelve of them over the course of a year, he is automatically banned from a race. “I assure you, the message would be completely different,” says Montoya.
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However, such penalty points actually only exist for sporting offenses and not for statements made off the track. By the way, Montoya does not want his proposal to be understood as an attack on freedom of speech. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t openly express your opinion,” he emphasizes.
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“But you shouldn’t come and call a Formula 1 car ‘Mario Kart’,” says the two-time Indy 500 winner. Verstappen had compared the premier class this year, among other things, to the mentioned video game and called the new regulations a “joke.”
Montoya himself competed in the premier class between 2001 and 2006 and was not afraid back then either to take on the biggest names in the sport on the track. In his third Formula 1 race in 2001, he had a wheel-to-wheel duel with Michael Schumacher in Brazil.
While he never achieved the ultimate success in Formula 1 in the form of a world championship title, Montoya celebrated great successes especially in America. In addition to two wins at the Indianapolis 500, he was also CART champion in 1999 and won the 24 Hours of Daytona three times after his Formula 1 career.
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