Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda has said that the stewards’ decision to penalise Max Verstappen at the US Grand Prix is the worst decision he’s ever seen in Formula 1. Verstappen was handed a five-second time penalty following the chequered flag.
The stewards deemed that Verstappen had illegally overtaken Raikkonen on the last lap as the two battled for the final step on the podium. Verstappen was led out of the podium room and vented his anger at the stewards in his post-race comments.
Lauda, a three-time world champion, defended the 20-year-old, claiming he has never seen a worse ruling decision in the history of the sport: “We had meetings at the start of the year to see how far stewards should go in decisions during a race because it always says ‘under investigation’,” he said