Red Bull driver Max Verstappen has made headlines of late, particularly for his aggressive driving style at the United States and Mexican Grand Prix, for which he drew severe criticism. However, the Dutchman believes he would not have been subjected to the “extreme accusations” from Formula 1 pundits if it wasn’t for his “wrong passport”.

During last weekend’s Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the three-time world champion was twice handed ten-second time penalties for forcing his championship rival Lando Norris off the track in two separate incidents. While Red Bull described the penalties as excessively harsh, the champion faced criticism from former F1 champion and Sky Sports F1 analyst Damon Hill, as well as former driver and current FIA steward Johnny Herbert.

Hill openly questioned Verstappen’s ability to race correctly, while Herbert accused him of deliberately pushing Norris into Turn 7 during the US GP to undermine his chances of winning the world title this season . That move, Herbert claimed, ultimately paved the way for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to take victory.

Verstappen responded to the comments at the Brazilian Grand Prix press conference by citing a nationalist angle to the allegations against him. He responded to Dutch journalists about how he was targeted because he had the “wrong passport”. He said:

“I know how most people are, it’s nothing new.

“Last year was perfect, so it must have hurt a lot for a lot of people that they couldn’t say anything negative.

“Now they have a chance to say something, so they all come out of the woodwork. At the end of the day, I’ve got the wrong passport for this paddock.”

Responding to Herbert’s allegation regarding the second incident of the Mexico City GP, he said:

“I didn’t do anything on purpose. I can’t look inside my head.

“That’s a pretty extreme charge. I just ran hard.”

Speaking about the incident itself and how Red Bull need to improve the RB20 title contender to avoid “getting into this situation again”, he said:

“You win something, you lose something.

“It depends. Every situation is different, and in hindsight it’s always easy to take a different look at it.

“It happened, we just have to make sure we have a more competitive car so we don’t end up in that situation again, because that’s where it starts.”

The Red Bull driver then spoke about how he felt marked for the swearing incident during a press conference, which led to a one-day community service penalty. However, when Charles Leclerc exhibited similar behavior in Mexico, no penalty was issued. Reports indicate that the FIA ​​is set to decide this weekend in Brazil whether further action is needed. Verstappen said:

“(Herbert) had great opinions about what I said in the press conference (in Baku), but I didn’t hear him after the press conference in Mexico.

“Actually, what (Leclerc) said is worse than what I said in its context and it was a much more important press conference with more people watching. But you know, I’m not going to spend time on that . It is what it is.”