04/06/2015
NEWS STORY
17 or not, Max Verstappen stood his ground at today's press conference, slapping down criticism from Felipe Massa.
Whilst often among the first to criticise others, at times Felipe Massa appears to forget he has history of his own. Indeed, as he talked and giggled with Lewis Hamilton throughout today's press conference, it would be easy to forget the season long feud the pair enjoyed a few years back.
In the wake of Max Verstappen's crash at Monaco - an accident that marred what had been a superb weekend for the youngster and earned him a grid penalty for this weekend's race - Massa was among the first to criticise the youngster.
Asked to clarify his comments today, the Brazilian claimed he believed it was right that the Toro Rosso driver be penalised for the Monaco incident, and that young drivers in their first season need to be watched carefully by the FIA.
"I think he needed to be penalised because what he did was wrong," said the Williams driver. "I think when you are in your first year, seventeen years old and you do something like that and you are not penalised it is completely wrong.
"The FIA needs to be strong in a proper way, which is what they did. I don't change my mind," he added "That is what I believe. We need to follow the rules, I thought what he did was wrong."
Despite his years, Max was having none of it.
"Everyone can have his opinion," he fired back. "But look at my data, I didn't brake later. I braked later in the race before that, and that lap was the same as the lap before.
"I got my penalty but am focusing on Canada now," he added, before firmly twisting the knife. "Maybe we should review the race from last year and see what happened there..." he said, a crystal clear reference to the accident in 2014.
A year ago, Massa attempted to overtake Sergio Perez going into T1 on the final lap of the race. Massa's front right tyre collided with the back of the Force India which caused them both to crash into the barriers at high speed and resulted in the deployment of the safety car for the final moments of the race. While both drivers were referred to the stewards, it was Perez who was handed a 5-place grid penalty for Austria, though many believed Massa was equally to blame.
It was verbal, but today Massa became the latest to receive a Verstappen-slappen.
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