Max Verstappen’s maiden title win in 2021 was controversial enough at the time, with the manipulation of the safety car by the race director still not being forgotten by many F1 fans, who call his win illegitimate.
Now with Red Bull having been found guilty of breaching the $145m cost cap that year, which could have given the team a performance advantage over Mercedes, the critics have remerged, once again questioning the validity of Verstappen’s 2021 triumph.
The Dutchman has claimed that all the talk does not bother him, with the criticism become background noise to the Dutchman.
“They are sore anyway so it doesn’t matter what they say or what you do,” he said.
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“I can [deal with it]. Probably they can’t and they will never be able to so that’s a problem for them to deal with,” he suggested.
The 25-year-old has been the victim of a lot of abuse on social media, being called a cheat, however it is worth noting that the wrongdoing is by the team and their spending, not by the driver.
The two-time world champion has admitted that all the talk around the cost cap frustrates him, and reiterated that it is not up to him to decide what happens.
“It’s a bit frustrating,” he claimed.
“From our side we feel we are not wrong, but just some things are taken into the budget cap with are very expected.
“We’ll have to deal with it. But it’s also not up to me to decide what is right.
“We don’t know until the things are decided, but also these things I’m not involved with.”
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Talks on a potential punishment were put on hold while the F1 world mourned the passing of Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz, but the suggestions are that over the previous couple of days, Red Bull and the FIA have come to an agreement on a punishment.
The most likely sanction for the Milton Keynes outfit will be a sanction on their testing time for next year, with CFD and wind tunnel testing time set to be slashed as a consequence for last year’s overspend.
This will come as a big hit for the team, with Red Bull already receiving the least testing time on the grid as a result of finishing first in the constructor’s championship.