How Mexico penalties finally set the right standard for punishing Verstappen’s tactics

Here we go again. There’s still a sprint and a grand prix left in Formula 1’s penultimate triple-header of the year for things to get ugly at least a third time in this run between 2024 title contenders Max Verstappen and Lando Norris and up next after Brazil is Sin City…

Given last Saturday’s news that the FIA is open to altering F1’s racing guidelines – the topic of the Mexico event’s build-up – there had been relief in some quarters of the F1 paddock.

The hope is that this willingness to engage on racing rules, and fast, might finally stamp out Verstappen’s cynical professional foul tactic.

This was in action at Turn 4 of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on lap 10 of last weekend’s Mexico Grand Prix. Again it – and the even worse move a few seconds later at Turn 7 – eclipses a famous Ferrari win. But Fred Vasseur and co are actually gleeful that the focus keeps falling elsewhere, while the Scuderia concentrates on notching up wins.

This time, after the ruling on the Verstappen/Norris Austin Turn 12 clash had been botched by their predecessors, the Mexico stewards penalised the world champion for doing yet another ‘turning-defence-into-attack’ move – this one sent Norris off across the Turn 4 grass – and they did so with a 10-second penalty, with another soon to follow.

On Turn 4 alone, this sets a strong precedent the stewards at the upcoming Brazilian and Las Vegas races must heed.

On the specifics of the 10s penalty, FIA sources explained in the Mexico paddock that this is actually the standard sanction for such a transgression per the penalty range guidelines given to the stewards.

Yet Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko claimed “it’s a reaction to all the incidents that took place in Austin” – the combination of Verstappen’s total penalty count at play.

But the explanation of why this was objectively harsher than Norris’s five-second penalty for overtaking outside track limits in that Austin clash is because there the stewards are understood to have applied mitigating circumstances from Verstappen’s apex diving.

This time, with no doubt Norris was ahead at the apex of Turn 4, Verstappen still shoved him wide.

Post-race, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner offered more deflection defence. He claimed Norris was…