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How do you solve a problem like Verstappen?

 Regarding :-

The Verstappen problem that F1 fails to acknowledge

I think one has to put Verstappen's penalties into the established F1 contexts.

A driver is punished within the now old and established penalty point system. Drivers are given a year long pass to modify their behaviour and if they repeatedly do not they get a race ban. Some are a bit dim about this. But even Pierre "what do you mean I accumulate points" Gasly finally sorted himself out.

You could certainly make a valid case that Verstappen should have been given a stronger penalty for deliberately driving into Russell. But given the above it was always going to be extremely unlikely that he'd be given 4 points and thus trigger the ban.

Now, of course he has two races to keep his nose clean and not pick up a point then two disappear and he's a bit safer. And if he's not wayward again before Brazil another two expire and he can go back to how he prefers to race.

That is how the system is supposed to work - a framework to punish bad behaviour within a context of ongoing rehabilitation.

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