Crazy 'armed robbery' comparison made around contentious Max Verstappen penalty

Guenther Steiner has compared the mitigating circumstances surrounding Max Verstappen's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix penalty to an "armed robbery", questioning the FIA's judgment. 

Verstappen received a five-second time penalty for leaving the circuit and gaining an advantage at the opening chicane after being narrowly overtaken by Oscar Piastri, before rejoining the track in the lead. 

The penalty cost the Red Bull driver victory as Piastri regained first place after the four-time F1 champion served his punishment before going on to take the chequered flag. 

Whilst the penalty left Red Bull unhappy, the FIA opted against delivering the standard punishment to Verstappen for breaching article 33.3 of the sporting regulations. 

The rules state that leaving the circuit and gaining an advantage should warrant a 10-second time penalty, yet the FIA believed that the incident taking place at the first corner was a mitigating circumstance. 

Steiner disagreed with Verstappen's penalty, although he was left perplexed as to why a mitigating circumstance was determined by the stewards.

"Now we have mitigating circumstances. You're wrong or you're right in life," Steiner said on the Red Flags podcast. 

"I have not seen a lot of things, they [the stewards] are not sure if it is right or wrong. So let's make it five seconds instead of 10. Let's give him a little bit of a discount here. 

"I don't know, I wouldn't say, if you make an armed robbery without bullets in your gun, is that mitigating or not?"

'It was racing'

In the former Haas team principal's eyes, Verstappen should not have been penalised at all for the incident with Piastri at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. 

Steiner argued that the 27-year-old was ahead going into the first corner, but that the FIA should have awarded the full 10-second time penalty instead to have made a clear statement.

"I wouldn't be okay," insisted Steiner, when asked if he would have approved Verstappen receiving a 10-second time penalty. "But then they would have made a clear message.

"Because for me, in my opinion, it was racing. Obviously, there is games played here, and that's part of racing. You try to keep your position, and you play with it.

"And I think Max was in front. How he played that, it worked for him. It was like, as they said, mitigating circumstances. It was the first lap. 

"But you're racing. That is what racing is about. Should he go off and brake and let the other one by? No."

Steiner puts the stewards' decision to only hand Verstappen a five-second time penalty down to there not being complete belief that it required a punishment.

He later continued by addressing a conversation he had on penalties with former IndyCar driver Max Papis.

"One thing I will never forget is, if you have any doubt, if something that happened is not a penalty, the decision is to give no penalty. You know what I mean?" said Steiner.

"If it is 99 per cent clear that it is a penalty, it's still not 100 per cent. Don't give it. And in my opinion, [the stewards] were like, 'Okay, it was a penalty, but we don't think so. But it was the first turn, so let's halve the penalty'.

"Because, in my honest opinion, I think Oscar would have overtaken him anyway."