13/06/2025
NEWS STORY
Despite being just one point away from a race ban, Max Verstappen plans to fight as hard as ever.
The Dutchman must stay out of trouble until at least the end of this month if he is to avoid a ban, which means behaving himself this weekend in Canada and again at his team's home race in Austria. However, the idea of not taking the fight to his rivals is an anathema to the four-time world champion.
No, nothing changes... nothing," he told reporters in Canada. "I cannot just back out of everything. I'm just going to race like I always do, I trust myself.
"Is it fair that I'm on 11 points? I don't know," he added. "But at the same time, life isn't fair. I don't worry about it, I just come here to race and I will always race hard. Though I'm not here, of course, to try and get a ban."
Asked if he thinks it fair that he finds himself in this predicament, he replied: "I don't need to go into that to be honest. I mean, what is fair?
"If you look at it like that. I don't worry about it. I just come here to race. And I will always race hard. Race how I think I should race. And then we go on to the next race."
Though he initially refused to discuss the Barcelona incident(s), he subsequently took to social media to issue a mea culpa.
"I was sharing my view of things, how I thought that race panned out," said of his admission. "Not ideal for me, but that was my statement. And then I went back to enjoying my day.
"It was a misjudgement, you know, clearly in the corner," he added. "But you don't need to go into full detail of why, how and what.
"Everyone makes mistakes in life. Everyone learns from them and we just move on."