“Special treatment”: Fans react as FIA’s new guidelines imply Max Verstappen’s potential fate 

Max Verstappen and George Russell's collision at the Spanish GP attracted a lot of criticism for the FIA and race stewards, as the penalties given to the Dutchman were regarded as lenient. FIA recently came out and publicly released the guidelines for penalty points and driving standards. As the documents were made available, fans compared the penalty given to Verstappen with the guidelines.

George Russell and Max Verstappen collided after the safety car restart at the Spanish GP. The Dutchman went off the track into the first corner and was advised by the team to give the position to Russell. However, while attempting to do so, Verstappen collided with the Mercedes driver, which led to a 10-second time penalty and three penalty points on the driver's license.

As the FIA penalty points guidelines were publicly released for better transparency behind the decisions made by the stewards, fans came out and detailed how the guidelines suggested that a deliberate intent behind a collision led to 4 four penalty points.

As per the guidelines, causing a collision with no immediate and obvious sporting consequence leads to a 5 or 10-second penalty and 3 penalty points, whereas causing a collision with apparent deliberate or reckless intent warrants a 10 Stop and Go penalty or any time penalty exceeding 30 seconds, along with 4 penalty points.

Fans took to the comments section on the social media platform X and claimed that Max Verstappen was given special treatment by the FIA, as his collision with Russell at the Spanish GP was considered a “collision with no immediate and obvious sporting consequence.”

“Special treatment,” wrote a fan Another mentioned, “As if we don’t all know Max gets special treatment.” “Max getting special treatment by the FIA is nothing new,” commented another

Had Max Verstappen gotten the penalty for deliberately causing the collision with Russell, he would've been awarded four penalty points, bringing his total to 12, which would have resulted in the Dutchman missing a race.

“This is like Saudi ‘21. It was obvious that Max did it on purpose, but the stewards were like naaaahhh it’s bad for the championship if we penalize him harsher. So of course, a smart driver like Max will always push the boundaries,” commented a fan Another user wrote, “It was deliberate though so they were very lenient. Again.”

Some fans came out and mentioned the erratic driving by George Russell at the Canadian GP, where he braked under the safety car and forced Verstappen to overtake him.

“What about purposefully brake checking under the SC for the sole purpose of getting another driver a penalty?” mentioned a fan

Max Verstappen to drop off penalty points after the 2025 Austrian GP

According to the FIA, the penalty points stay on a driver's super licence for 12 months after which they are dropped off. Max Verstappen has currently accumulated 11 penalty points on his license, with the earliest ones from last year dropping off after the 2025 Austrian GP weekend.

However, if the Dutchman gets involved in a collision at the upcoming race around the Red Bull Ring, and penalty points are warranted, then the Red Bull driver would trigger the race ban.

Two penalty points will be removed from Max Verstappen’s license on June 30, the Monday after the Austrian GP. These were awarded last year when Verstappen collided with Lando Norris at the 2024 Austrian GP.

Edited by pranavsethii