Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft has told Max Verstappen conspiracy theorists to “stop” making up ridiculous comments, after several Formula 1 fans called for the reigning world champion to be penalised after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver had an excellent race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Sunday after successfully recovering from 15th on the grid, to finish second.
Whilst most drivers would see this as an excellent result, Verstappen was far from pleased, with the 25-year-old having stated after the race that “I should have won”.
The Dutchman’s weekend was somewhat ruined by a driveshaft failure during qualifying, which saw Verstappen eliminated in Q2.
READ: Max Verstappen furious with Red Bull
“We need to do better as a team, we can’t have problems like these,” Verstappen told Dutch broadcaster Viaplay.
“Otherwise this would have been a very different race for me. At the end we limited the damage a little bit, but I should have won here.”
With Verstappen having been unhappy after the race, it led to many suggestions that he purposefully didn’t park in the correct spot after the race, due to his team-mate having claimed victory.
Whilst at most circuits parc ferme is found in the pits, in Jeddah on Sunday the top three had to park on the start/finish straight, something Verstappen failed to do.
The Red Bull driver entered the pits instead, something which confused race winner Sergio Pérez.
“Stay on track,” Pérez’s race engineer Sam Bird said to the Mexican.
“Max is going through the pit lane,” Pérez replied.
“He should be staying on track,” responded Bird. “Halfway down the grid, you’ll see a number one board.”
As a result of the Dutch driver having parked in the wrong place, some fans called for the double world champion to be penalised, something Croft called for fans to “stop” doing.
The commentator told one listener of the Sky Sports F1 podcast to “stop looking for conspiracy theories with ‘anyone else would get a penalty’” comment.
“I would imagine Max just brought it in to where he normally brings it in and had forgotten and wasn’t told that he was meant to park it on the grid,” Croft added.
Some of Croft’s fellow pundits on the podcast seemingly didn’t have the same view as the comment, though, with presenter Natalie Pinkham having said “really?”.
READ: Lewis Hamilton mocked after 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
“Do you think? I mean Max is quite used to winning Formula One races, he knows where to park it,” Matt Bear said.
Croft replied: “Where did Max park his car in Bahrain? On the ramp under the podium in parc ferme.
“Where do cars normally pull into at the end of a race? Parc ferme. They don’t normally go on the grid. So it’s not a one-off but it doesn’t happen all the time.”