Martin Brundle calls for Max Verstappen penalty

F1 broadcasting legend Martin Brundle has suggested he would have given four-time world champion Max Verstappen a 'drive-through' penalty for a move at the Mexican Grand Prix.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Sky F1 show, Brundle and his Sky colleagues discussed why they were unhappy with the driving of the likes of Verstappen and Charles Leclerc in the early part of last weekend's race.

Both drivers went off track at Turn 1 on lap one and kept their positions ahead of Lewis Hamilton, with a no further action verdict later confirmed by the FIA.

Verstappen also went off at Turn 3 on lap six of the race when fighting Hamilton for position, and again was not given a penalty as Oliver Bearman also overtook him, showing he had lost time by going off track.

However, in the same incident, Hamilton was ruled to have left the track and gained a lasting advantage, and was slammed with a 10-second time penalty.

Now, Brundle has said that he would've taken a similarly harsh position on Verstappen's misdemeanours, if he was stewarding the race.

"Max should have had a penalty," Brundle said. "If you put your car on the far left in four abreast, it will go on the kerb, but Max had no intention, you can see Max accelerate, really skilful driving through the grass I must say.

"Max made no effort whatsoever to take Turns 1, 2 or 3, and that should have been a penalty."

Brundle criticises 'hopeless' Mexican F1 track

While the moves from Hamilton, Verstappen and Leclerc could be debated all day long over whether they deserved a penalty or not, attention has now switched to the layout of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Sky F1 pundit Karun Chandhok said in an Instagram post earlier this week that changes should be made to the circuit to allow fewer drivers to cut certain corners, and Brundle took a similar view during the podcast.

"The geography out there is just hopeless," Brundle continued. "It needs zones, it needs a place you’ve got to pass through, maybe even a zone where you have to proceed at pit lane speed limit for 100 metres or 50 metres or something to really make it almost as big a deterrent as a barrier in Monaco and then they won’t go out there, it’s as simple as that.

"Max took the risk on the outside, knowing full well he could just bury the throttle and carry on. The sort of thing if the fireproof boot had been on the other foot, Max would have been screaming about on the radio, saying he had no intention of making that corner. He didn’t.

"I might even have given somebody doing what Max did, a drive-through, as a proper deterrent to stop the silliness, because then it all gets chaotic."

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