Formula 1 championship leader Max Verstappen’s burnout celebration after winning the Styrian Grand Prix will not be tolerated in the future.
Verstappen dominated the Styrian GP, held at Red Bull’s home track.
As he crossed the line to win more than half a minute clear of Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton following a late pitstop for his rival, Verstappen slowed down in front of his cheering team members on the pitwall and performed a lengthy burnout.
He did not quite come to a stop before doing so.
FIA race director Michael Masi said looked at it “as soon as it happened”.
“It was not an ideal situation, which is why I spoke to the team immediately and told them accordingly that it’s something that would not be tolerated in the future,” said Masi.
The race-winning driver is permitted to ignore the rule in F1’s sporting regulations that states drivers must proceed directly to post-race parc ferme without any unnecessary delay to complete an “act of celebration”.
However, three conditions to do so are that the act is “performed safely and does not endanger other drivers or any officials”, “does not call into question the legality of his car” and “does not delay the podium ceremony”.
Verstappen’s clearly did not contravene the second or third conditions so Masi is likely to have believed it was unsafe.
The nearest car was Nicholas Latifi’s Williams, which was three seconds behind and crossed the line at speed with Verstappen pulling away again on the right-hand side.
Verstappen’s win moved him 18 points clear at the top of the drivers’ championship.
It also helped Red Bull extend its constructors’ championship advantage over Mercedes to 40 points.
