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FIA steward and former three-time Grand Prix winner Johnny Herbert has revealed that Max Verstappen was ‘really worked up’ during his meeting after the press conference at the Singapore

Grand Prix. The three-time world champion used a swear word while answering a journalist’s question during Thursday’s official FIA press conference, landing him in hot water. Following a

meeting with the stewards, he was issued a community service penalty sparking significant debate and public backlash from Verstappen. Offering an insight into the conversation with Red

Bull’s star driver, Herbert told _Casino Hawks_: “At the press conference in Singapore, Max used the F-word about his car. The press conferences are beamed around the world. “There is more

swearing than there ever has been. A press conference is not the place for it. Some journalists have said the sport is trying to make robots out of the drivers. That’s not the case. “You are

just asking them not to swear which I think is the right thing. Most drivers don’t swear. The incident was referred to us as stewards. We had a good open chat with Max for about 20 minutes,

half an hour, in what was a difficult situation. “You could see in his face he was really worked up about it. But when he left, he appeared to be mollified about the process and why it’s

there. He did not blame us as stewards. As stewards, we have a range of tools to punish drivers. “We are there to implement the rules and make a decision together. We could have fined him,

but we felt it would be more beneficial to get him to do something socially responsible. It is up to Max and the FIA what that is.” For the FIA, the consequences of their action could prove

dramatic should they continue to clamp down on Verstappen’s language. The Dutchman even threatened to quit the sport when asked for his thoughts on the matter. “Yeah. I mean, these kinds of

things definitely decide my future as well, when you can’t be yourself, or you have to deal with these kinds of silly things,” he explained. “I think now, I’m at the stage of my career that

you don’t want to be dealing with this all the time. “It’s really tiring, you know? Of course, it’s great to have success and win races, but once you have accomplished all that, winning

championships and races, and then you want to just have a good time as well. “Of course, everyone is pushing to the limit, everyone in this battle, even at the back of the grid. But if you

have to deal with all these kinds of silly things, for me, that is not a way of continuing in the sport, that’s for sure.”