Max Verstappen and Felipe Massa agreed to differ after the subject of the Dutchman's Monaco collision came up in the FIA press conference on Thursday – and the Toro Rosso youngster was not shy about defending himself.
Massa, who had been critical of Verstappen immediately after the race, was asked to clarify his comments.
“First of all, I said when I had the interview after the race, he was not penalized and they asked me what I thought,” Massa explained. “And I said ‘I think he needs to be penalized because what he did was wrong.’ So that’s what I said and I think, especially when you’re in your first year, 17 years old and if you do something like that and you’re not penalized, it’s completely wrong.
“I think the FIA needs to be strong in a proper way, which is what they did actually, that’s the only thing I said and I don’t change my mind. That’s what I believe. We need to follow the rules. I said what he did was wrong. That’s what I said.”
Asked for his views, Verstappen said: “Well, everybody can have their opinion, that’s the first thing, but I looked at my data, I didn’t brake any later. I have braked later in the race before that but on the lap I crashed, it was exactly the same lap as the lap before and I got my penalty.”
He then made a pointed reference to the 2014 Canadian GP, when Massa collided with Sergio Perez: “I’m focusing on Canada right now and maybe you should review the race from last year and see what happened there.”
Verstappen said he had no regrets about what happened.
“I was attacking, I wanted those points, especially after the pit stop we had. I don’t know. Maybe turn a bit earlier to the right, try to avoid it a bit more and maybe try to do it [make a move] another lap again. I don’t think there were so many things I had to do differently, up until then.
“I don’t think there’s any reason to look back at Monaco and just focus on Canada like I said and we’ll try to score some points again, and I will not change my driving style.”
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