RacingDavid Coulthard says the FIA will fine a driver for a stray word yet issued no reprimand when Max Verstappen had a journalist removed from a Suzuka media session. The former F1 driver said he was "a little bit surprised the FIA didn't take a stance on it" and added "I didn't see anything that there was any sort of reprimand," speaking on the Up to Speed podcast about the episode at the Japanese Grand Prix.
The incident happened on Thursday’s media day at Suzuka. According to reports from the session, Verstappen refused to start a Red Bull hospitality press conference until a specific journalist left. He then expelled The Guardian journalist Gene Richards, after which the session continued.
Coulthard called the move unusual and suggested Verstappen may not feel great about it in hindsight. "It's probably not something that, on reflection, Max will feel good about because even though he's absolutely at right, you don't have to answer the question. It is unusual to ask somebody to leave from that environment," Coulthard, a former F1 driver, said on the Up to Speed podcast.
He returned to the same point about governance. "I'm actually a little bit surprised the FIA didn't take a stance on it. I didn't see anything that there was any sort of reprimand," Coulthard said on the podcast. He argued that the governing body’s enforcement appears uneven, noting on Up to Speed that drivers can be fined for minor crude language while an act that removed a journalist from a professional setting drew no reprimand. That contrast, he said, underlines the uncertainty around how rules are enforced.
The exchange has put a spotlight on the FIA’s role on media day as much as on Verstappen’s choice in the moment. Coulthard did not excuse the tension that can build between drivers and reporters, but he underscored the rights on both sides and the pressure that shapes reactions. "It is their right as a journalist to say what they see, but it is difficult not to take it personally, and none of the drivers are exempt from that," Coulthard said on the Up to Speed podcast.
Beyond those comments, there has been no public indication of a sanction connected to the Suzuka media session. As Coulthard framed it, the lack of a reprimand when a reporter was ejected in front of the paddock sits uneasily next to moments when drivers have been penalized for smaller lapses in language, and it raises fresh questions about where the FIA chooses to step in during race weekends.