F1 pundit claims Singapore GP stewards have admitted to making a mistake by not penalizing Max Verstappen in qualifying

F1 commentator David Croft recently stated that the FIA race stewards of the 2023 F1 Singapore GP have admitted that they made a mistake by not handing out penalties to Max Verstappen for his faults during the qualifying session.

During the qualifying session of the Singapore GP last week, Max Verstappen was investigated for three different violations but was not given a penalty for any of them. Several team representatives subsequently approached the FIA and complained about the allegedly lenient and irregular penalty patterns from the race stewards.

Later on, during the Friday (September 22) practice sessions of the Japanese GP, F1 commentator David Croft stated that one of the stewards from the Singapore GP admitted that Verstappen should have been given a grid penalty for impeding Yuki Tsunoda's flying lap and for blocking the pit lane for too long.

Croft said, as per Fastest Pitstop:

"One of the stewards from the Singapore GP admitted, in a meeting with team managers at Suzuka, that Verstappen should have had a grid drop for the Yuki impeding at least, and potentially a second drop for the pit lane incident."

Neither Max Verstappen nor Logan Sargeant will be getting any penalties for what happened in the 2023 F1 Singapore GP. However, it is clear that teams are now calling for more transparency on how penalties and fines are managed by the race stewards. Only time will tell whether the FIA changes its governing ways or not.

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Max Verstappen's blunt response to fans who are not liking his and Red Bull's dominance

Max Verstappen was quite blunt while speaking about the exhilarating last few laps of the 2023 F1 Singapore GP, where Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, George Russell, and Lewis Hamilton were fighting for the win. He stated that he does not have interest in thinking about what is good for the sport and what is not.

"Honestly, I have zero interest in that... we got beaten in a very clear way. I don't think about what is good for F1, I don't think it was necessarily bad, what was happening, we were just better than everyone else," said Verstappen (via RacingNews365).

Verstappen added that if fans are unable to appreciate his and Red Bull's dominance in Formula 1, then they are not real fans of the sport. He appeared quite relaxed about not winning or even standing on the podium, and said he knew that others were much better and deserved the top spots in Singapore.

"If people can't appreciate that, you are not a real fan, but this is how it goes," Verstappen said. "This is why I was super relaxed about it. We didn't perform and other people did a better job than us and deserved to win. They shouldn't win because people say it's boring that we are winning."

Max Verstappen ended up in fifth place at the Marina Bay circuit, ending his record-breaking 10-race winning streak.