Scuderia Ferrari has tried to place blame squarely on Max Verstappen for the dramatic first-lap wreck that led to the team’s first double DNF in 11 years. And the Dutchman’s father, Jos Verstappen, clearly wasn’t going to let that slide.
Max’s unlucky streak continued Sunday in Singapore when he was sandwiched between Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen on the run up to Turn 1 in a wreck that ended all three drivers’ races. The 19-year-old Red Bull Racing driver was the blameless party in the incident, a fact that Jos reiterated on Twitter following the Grand Prix.
Jos, who competed in Formula One for eight years, posted a freeze-frame from the moment before Max, Vettel and Raikkonen made contact, along with the caption “I have nothing more to say.” He added arrows that extend from all three cars’ nose cones, proving that Max was driving straight ahead and Vettel was the one who caused the collision.
It admittedly might seem odd for Jos to rush to his son’s defense almost immediately — as he usually lets his son fight his own battles in the public eye — especially given that it was fairly obvious to everybody who watched the replay that Max wasn’t at fault. That is, everybody except the folks at Ferrari.
As soon as the safety car was brought out for the crash, Ferrari tweeted that Max “took out” Raikkonen and Vettel.
Many people took notice of the Scuderia’s word choice, and in response, rather than admit the team jumped the gun in appropriating blame, Ferrari doubled down on its take of the accident.
Perhaps “factual” means something different in Italian.
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@F1
