{"id":152025,"date":"2025-06-02T11:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T11:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/152025\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T11:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T11:57:10","slug":"did-verstappen-demand-leclerc-let-him-pass-%c2%b7-racefans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/152025\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Verstappen demand Leclerc let him pass? \u00b7 RaceFans"},"content":{"rendered":"

A radio message from Max Verstappen<\/a> displayed during yesterday\u2019s Spanish Grand Prix has prompted confusion among fans.<\/p>\n

A graphic displayed on lap 63 of the race quoted Verstappen saying \u201che needs to give the position back.\u201d Verstappen was running behind Charles Leclerc<\/a> at the time and had complained the Ferrari driver had made contact when overtaking him two laps earlier.<\/p>\n

No audio of Verstappen speaking these words was broadcast on the world television feed, which is not unusual. However fans who watched Verstappen\u2019s onboard feed were surprised to discover no sign of the message either and queried the discrepancy on social media.<\/p>\n

Formula One Management may misinterpret messages at times<\/a>, but creating one would obviously be a different matter entirely, and there\u2019s no reason to believe that was the case here.<\/p>\n

There have been previous cases of drivers\u2019 messages being heard on the world feed but not on their onboard feed. This is because messages are played and censored differently on the two broadcasts.<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/a>Verstappen was unhappy with Leclerc\u2019s passOn the world feed, messages are chosen and edited to go into the broadcast. If any parts are considered unsuitable for broadcast, typically because it includes profanity, the offending portion is replaced with a \u2018bleep\u2019.<\/p>\n

But on the onboard drivers\u2019 messages are played in close to real-time. Instead of editing them, if FOM are concerned a driver may be about to say something they do not wish to broadcast, the communications are simply silenced.<\/p>\n

FOM began doing this in order to avoid broadcasting potentially distressing audio if a driver suffers a heavy crash. However it also silences their radio if a driver becomes so agitated there is a concern they may say something particularly inflammatory.<\/p>\n

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This concern pre-dates FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem\u2019s notorious clampdown on drivers swearing. One of the first such cases occured at the 2023 Australian Grand Prix when an unhappy Carlos Sainz Jnr<\/a> complained bitterly to Ferrari\u2019s Ricardo Adami and Laurent Mekies about a penalty. Much of his commentary was played on the world feed, but not on his onboard channel:<\/p>\n\nLap: 57\/58<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAdami<\/td>\nWe have five seconds penalty<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nSainz<\/td>\nNo, it cannot be, Ricky. They need to wait until the race is finished and analyse the incident with me. They need to wait. It\u2019s only 10 minutes left \u2019til I come in the stewards room and explain it. <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAdami<\/td>\nYeah\u2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nSainz<\/td>\nHe said that we\u2019re going to finish P3. And then we\u2019re going to finish P4. Why do you need to put me out of the points? It is unacceptable. I cannot accept this. It\u2019s impossible. It\u2019s so unfair. It\u2019s a racing incident, lap one.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLap: 58\/58<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMekies<\/td>\nIt\u2019s clear, Carlos. It\u2019s clear. Let\u2019s finish that race, and we\u2019ll discuss here.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nSainz<\/td>\nBut let me at least discuss with the stewards in the stewards\u2019 room.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMekies<\/td>\nOf course we\u2019ll go and see them, just after you get out of the car.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

In yesterday\u2019s case, no audio of Verstappen\u2019s quote was played on the world feed. This could have been in order to avoid interrupting commentators with too many messages or due to concerns over audio quality.<\/p>\n

However, as noted previously<\/a>, FOM\u2019s power to essentially hide drivers\u2019 radio messages has potential implications for the competition. The FIA stewards often rely on radio communications for decision-making, as in the case of Russell\u2019s penalty in Monaco last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Assuming Verstappen made this comment, it likely occured during a two-minute spell during which no comments from him or race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase were heard on his onboard channel. Red Bull\u2019s rivals may like to know whether Verstappen said anything else during that time which FOM kept off his onboard feed.<\/p>\n

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World television feed<\/p>\n\nLap: 61<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nVerstappen<\/td>\nMate, he just rammed into me!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nVerstappen<\/td>\nHe did the same, that\u2019s a penalty.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nVerstappen<\/td>\nCharles just rammed into me on the straight.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLambiase<\/td>\nCopy that Max.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLap: 62<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLap: 63<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nVerstappen<\/td>\nText message, no audio
He needs to give the position back.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Verstappen onboard<\/p>\n\nLap: 61\/66 VER: 1\u201918.862<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nVerstappen<\/td>\nPit straight
Fuck! Mate, he just rammed into me!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nVerstappen<\/td>\nVerstappen leaves the track at turn one as Russell tries to pass him
He did the same, that\u2019s a penalty.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nVerstappen<\/td>\nCharles just rammed into me on the straight.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLambiase<\/td>\nCopy that Max. Mode six when you can.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLap: 62\/66 VER: 1\u201917.019<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLambiase<\/td>\nRussell 0.4.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLap: 63\/66 VER: 1\u201917.608<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLambiase<\/td>\nMax, can you let Russell through, please? Let Russell through.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nVerstappen<\/td>\nWhat? I was ahead! Mate, what the fuck?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLambiase<\/td>\nMy advice is to let him through.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nVerstappen<\/td>\nMate I was ahead, he just rammed me off the road!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLambiase<\/td>\nBut that\u2019s the rules. That\u2019s the rules we have to play with. It\u2019s a shame, but that\u2019s the rules.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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2025 Spanish Grand Prix
\nBrowse all 2025 Spanish Grand Prix articles<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A radio message from Max Verstappen displayed during yesterday\u2019s Spanish Grand Prix has prompted confusion among fans. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[59405,5070,4199,707,4200,1073,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-152025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-2025-spanish-grand-prix","9":"tag-charles-leclerc","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-max-verstappen","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114613652263332588","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}