Verstappen 'not over the limit' with punishment branded 'not nice'

Former F1 driver Felipe Massa has vigorously defended Max Verstappen in the swear-gate row that will see the three-time champion serve the sport's version of community service.

It is now well known that Verstappen used the f-word during the official FIA drivers' press conference on Thursday ahead of the recent Singapore Grand Prix.

After being summoned to see the stewards, it was fully expected the Red Bull driver would be handed nothing more than a formal warning, as was the case with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and Ferrari counterpart Fred Vasseur when they used the same expletive during an official FIA press call last year.

Verstappen, however, is now obligated to "accomplish some work of public interest" that will be determined by the FIA.

One of the stewards who handed Verstappen his punishment, Johnny Herbert, has explained why the penalty was administered.

Former Ferrari driver Massa, however, feels the sanction was not justified, and that drivers must be allowed to be themselves, especially in the heat of battle on track when tensions can spill over inside the cockpit of a car.

"In life, in sport, you have a limit for what you can say and in whatever situation," said Massa, speaking in an exclusive interview with RacingNews365.

"What happened to Max, he didn't pass the limit. When you have some fights there are some words and whatever you know, even some bad words. Sometimes that is part of the sport. It's part of the condition, the pressure, whenever things happen in a race.

"In football, you make a bad tackle on another player, if he has a microphone by his mouth, things will come out, and maybe not in a perfect way.

"But what's happening is too much, you know. The sport needs to have a way of [allowing] funny things, even crazy things which belong to the fights [on track].

"You cannot really do that. It was not nice what happened to Max with this punishment that Max had, and whatever, you know, all the drivers can have so he's not part of too much.