Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen finds it “quite funny” that he had no idea if he had won the title or not amid Japanese Grand Prix points confusion.
The Suzuka race was suspended, restarted, and barely cleared 50% of the scheduled distance before the three-hour limit was reached on a rain-hit day in Japan.
Verstappen completed 28 laps and the expectation was that this would invoke new rules introduced after last year’s farcical Belgian Grand Prix designed to ensure an appropriate number of laps be completed for points to be awarded.
However, the new rules are flawed because they are effectively incomplete. They only outline what happens if a race is suspended “and cannot be resumed” after certain percentages of the race are completed.
There is no explanation for what happens in a scenario like Sunday in Japan, where the race is suspended, can be resumed, but still only a certain percentage of the scheduled distance is achieved.
Many teams have admitted they did not consider this scenario. The points award made at Suzuka was likely not the intention of the revised regulations and The Race understands this is likely to result in a clarification.
However, as the rules are presently written, it is correct that full points were awarded in Japan.
The odd scenario meant even Verstappen had no idea what was going on. But he said: “To be honest, I don’t mind that it was a little bit confusing, I find it actually quite funny!
“At the end of the day, it’s not going to change the result.
“When I crossed the line, it was not enough, even if you would give full points. So in that scenario, it wouldn’t have changed anything.”
That’s because even with full points Verstappen was only made champion by a post-race penalty rapidly applied to Charles Leclerc.
It demoted Leclerc from second to third and even though Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez gained second place, Verstappen gained enough points on both drivers in this scenario to build an unassailable lead.
It further contributed to the confusion on Verstappen’s side. He had “no clue what they were going to decide with the points” during the race and then received conflicting information afterwards.
“The main target was to win the race,” he said. “But once I crossed the line I was like ‘OK, that was an amazing race, good points again, but not world champion yet’.
“Then I did my interview after the race. And then suddenly my mechanics started to cheer and I was like, what’s going on?
“I realised that Checo was second instead of Charles. But I still didn’t know if it was full points or half points or whatever it is – 75%, I don’t know how you do it!
“But Tom [Wood, FIA media delegate] came to me, and he said that I WAS the world champion.
“So, then we celebrated. And then suddenly it was people telling me ‘no, you’re still missing a point’! I was like ‘oh, that’s amazing, it’s a bit weird’.
“But then eventually we had enough points. So then we were world champion again!”
