Finally Max Verstappen has been disciplined for his chronic recklessness. In today's Mexico GP, he (yet again) forced another driver off the track. It's a move he's perfected over the last few years. He late-brakes into the corner taking the inside line towards the apex. The problem with the manoeuvre is that with the angle of the car and its velocity he will inevitably leave nowhere for the car outside him to go, except off the track.
The driver being overtaken is already turning in but has to either back off or course-correct away from the apex; but since he is already on the outside there's nowhere to go. So the Verstappen overtake manoeuvre inevitable leads to his rival being forced off the track (often incurring a track limits violation which is ridiculous). But this afternoon, in forcing Lando Norris off the track, Verstappen was finally penalised.
Here is a sequence of images that clearly show the problem. It's slightly different here in that Norris is passing Verstappen, but Verstappen's "response" is the same as when he's lunging down the inside for the overtake.
Coming into the corner, Norris is ahead of Verstappen.
Given the angle of both cars, Norris leaves Verstappen just enough room on the inside to follow Sainz round the corner.
At the apex, Norris is still a shade ahead but remember, he's taking the longer way round the corner so his lead will be diminishing - but he's still ahead at the apex. And Verstappen should be able to follow Sainz round the corner.
But that's not what he does. He doesn't turn into the corner but deliberately heads to the outside. Note the different angle of Verstappen's car from Sainzes'. In doing so Verstappen closes on Sainz (demonstrating that going straight on is quicker that turning round the corner).
Several car lengths after the apex, Verstappen is fractionally ahead of Norris, but Verstappen is leaving Norris less and less room, and Norris either has to drop back or leave the track.
Below, you can see that there's already less than a car width between Verstappen and the edge of the track and Verstappen is still pointing towards the outside of the track making that gap even smaller. In another car length, Verstappen will have left no room for Norris at all; he has nowhere to go but off.
In this case Verstappen claimed that Norris gained the place by going off the track; but Norris only left the track because Verstappen forced him off. Happily, Verstappen incurred a 10 second penalty (and another for similar shenanigans at the next corner).
Perhaps the stewards have had enough of Verstappen pushing the limits; he's one of the most reckless drivers I can remember in the 50+ years I've been following F1 and perhaps (finally) he's going to be reined in.
P.S Zak Brown, Mclaren's CEO, said as much after the race. When asked if he thought the time penalties handed down to Verstappen were appropriate his response was: "Probably not enough. It's getting a bit ridiculous. I applaud the FIA stewards. Enough's enough". I couldn't agree more.
