The Mexican Grand Prix got off to a wild and messy start, with multiple drivers running off at the opening corners and creating confusion in the midfield. Despite the chaos, the stewards decided not to take any action once things settled down. However, Sky Sports F1 pundit and former Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle strongly disagreed with that decision. Speaking on The F1 Show podcast, he argued that Max Verstappen should have been handed a drive-through penalty for what he described as “silly driving,” adding that such a penalty would have been “a proper deterrent to stop the silliness.”

The incident began right at Turn 1 when Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen went four-wide into the first braking zone. Norris and Hamilton managed to stay on the track, while Leclerc and Verstappen were forced to take to the run-off area. Leclerc briefly emerged in the lead but soon handed the position to Norris, who went on to take a dominant victory. Verstappen later let Hamilton through to correct his position and finished the race in fourth place.

Brundle did not just criticise Verstappen. He also felt Leclerc should have been penalised for missing Turn 2 entirely. “For me, at least Charles made an attempt at Turn 1, didn’t like the look of the way it was shaping up, so just ignored Turn 2,” Brundle said. “And that, for me, was a 10-second penalty.” He then went on to explain that Verstappen’s actions were even more serious.

“Max should have had a penalty, because if you put your car on the far left in four abreast, it will go on the kerb. But Max had no intention. You can see Max accelerate. Really skilful driving through the grass, I must say, but Max made no effort whatsoever to take Turns 1, 2 or 3, and that should have been a penalty.”

Brundle continued, saying he would have issued a drive-through penalty to send a stronger message. “I might even have given somebody doing what Max did a drive-through, as a proper deterrent to stop the silliness, because then it all gets chaotic.” He sympathised with drivers who followed the rules but lost out because others went off-track, adding, “I completely can understand those drivers that were minding their business actually staying on the racetrack, going like, ‘Well, hang on, I’m losing out here. I might as well have just made my own racetrack up in the first few corners and gain some places.’”

In response, Verstappen defended himself during the post-race press conference, claiming that he had no real control over the situation. “I had a very good start,” he explained. “Then you just follow the slipstream three-wide, four-wide. I had to move left, left, left, and then at one point, of course, you’re on the kerb and then I started bottoming out. That was quite hectic… a bit of rallying in between Turns 1 and 2. Then I got back onto the track and found my position again.”

Despite the controversy, Verstappen managed to recover well and turned his race around with a clever one-stop strategy, preserving his tyres and later overtaking Charles Leclerc to take third place. He also closed the gap to championship leader Norris to 36 points, keeping his title hopes alive with four Grands Prix and two sprint races remaining.

Not everyone shared Brundle’s view. 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, also speaking on The F1 Show, argued that Verstappen had not technically broken any rules. “The thing is, intent is one thing, and we cannot put really intent in the rules, it’s difficult,” Villeneuve said. “By the rules, he was ahead of George [Russell], let them back, so by the rules, it didn’t deserve a penalty. By the action, yes. So how do you proceed? You follow the rules, or you go with what we know is right and wrong? Right now, you just have to go by the rules.”

Villeneuve added that the real issue lies with the design of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit. “If you have gravel there or a wall, you wouldn’t be four-wide. You would be two-wide maybe, and everybody else would back off, because they would know that there’s not an escape road. Now they think, ‘Okay, it doesn’t matter – if I just brake way too late, I might be ahead, I’ll come out ahead. Maybe I let them by or not, nothing lost. It’s worth the risk.’”

The start of the race also drew frustration from other drivers. George Russell described the opening lap as “lawnmower racing,” while Fernando Alonso joked that he might start cutting corners too if such moves continued to go unpunished.