Max Verstappen showed his most defiant side ahead of this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix, dishing out an acerbic comeback to those who criticised his driving.
Following a clash with title rival Lando Norris in Austin, which ended with a penalty for the McLaren driver, Verstappen took matters further in Mexico with two shoves in the space of four corners, racing his title rival about as hard as he raced Lewis Hamilton in 2021 to safeguard his championship lead with an inferior Red Bull.
Verstappen's moves on Norris in Austin and particularly Mexico drew plenty of criticism from colleagues, fans and pundits alike, and inevitably he faced a barrage of questions on the subject on Thursday as the paddock gathered for its third consecutive race weekend, the events from Austin and Mexico still fresh and rumbling on.
His initial response in the FIA's official press conference was one of acerbic wit mixed with indifference, clapping back that he had plenty of friends and family to the question whether he felt alone in F1, what with his uncompromising views on what hard racing should be. And he echoed prime Kimi Raikkonen - 'Leave me alone, I know what to do' - with his rebuttal of criticism from 1996 world champion Damon Hill on whether he knew what fair racing looked like.
Afterwards, in the less formal atmosphere of his session with Dutch-language journalists, Verstappen was even more defiant - ebullient even - cracking jokes over how he feels he has been treated. But while he delivered his own version of the facts with a wry smile, the undercurrent of the Dutchman feeling it was him against the rest of the world cut through.
And for all his indifference to outside opinions and the media blackout he said he had imposed, he seemed pretty aware of what the likes of Hill and Johnny Herbert had said. He suggested pundits – predominantly British – had come out of the woodwork now that, following a near-flawless 2023 campaign, there was finally another stick to beat him with.
Not without merit, Verstappen labelled FIA steward Herbert airing his views through a gambling website as "pretty abnormal". And he took offence to the former F1 driver's suggestion that he elbowed Norris out of the way on purpose in Mexico so Ferrari's Charles Leclerc could come through and deny Norris important championship points. Herbert is far from the only observer holding that opinion inside the F1 paddock.
When jokingly asked if he should check if he had any British ancestry to escape the scrutiny, he grinned: "No... I don't think I have that! I'm very happy with my passport, it's just the wrong passport in this paddock. But it is what it is."
An F1 veteran of 10 years now, at no point did Verstappen appear particularly agitated by the latest media storm, reiterating his desire to focus on Red Bull fixing its performance issues so he doesn't have to be forcefully battling people in the first place.
When asked if he took more satisfaction out of edging towards his fourth world title the hard way, he said: "No, last year was a lot better. My challenge last year was to try and win everything, now I'm just trying to win once. This isn't as fun because our car isn't as competitive."
Verstappen's relations with Norris also came up, with the pair's friendship tested over their first clash in Austria. Norris and Verstappen said they hadn't spoken to each other after disagreeing over their Mexican lucha libre bout, but according to Verstappen there is no need to.
"No, because we already cleared the air properly [in Silverstone, days after the Austria collision]" he said. "We both understand we're fighting for the championship; we're not going for a lap around the church. We always told each other we need to race each other hard, so not much has changed in that regard.
"You know what it is? Everyone on the circuit knows that even if you're the best friends, if you're fighting for the championship you are both going to go for it. You can either be best friends or hate each other, but what you do on the circuit stays the same."
Nothing personal. Just business.
That's why Verstappen also saw no bones in Norris calling him a dangerous driver over the team radio, labelling it as an adrenaline-fuelled message aimed at his team and at race control more than anything else because drivers are "always trying to influence the stewards a little bit".
Norris agreed there was no need to clear the air: "No, we've not spoken. I don't think we need to. I've got nothing to say. I still have a lot of respect for Max and everything he does, not respect for what he did last weekend, but respect for him as a person, also what he's achieved.
"But it's not for me to speak to him. I'm not his teacher, I'm not his mentor or anything like that. Max knows what he has to do. He knows that he did wrong, deep down he does."
Does he though? Verstappen still had issues with his first 10-second penalty for pushing Norris off at Turn 4, but he did agree he deserved his second 10-second penalty at Turn 7, brushing off his opportunistic lunge on Norris as "you win some, you lose some".
But he has little time for the pile-on that followed, and what he perceived as bias against him. "Some people are just being very annoying, and I know who these people are. I don't pay a lot of attention to them anyway, and I think I've got to this stage in my career with the right people supporting me and making my own decisions.
"Some people are just a bit biased – I get it. It's fine. But it’s not my problem at the end of the day, I just continue with my life and keep performing."
When asked if he felt like he had his back against the wall in the face of the intense scrutiny on him, Verstappen gave the most Max Verstappen answer possible.
"No. If there had been a wall I would have torn it down."
