Verstappen penalty 'the worst I've seen' - Lauda

Niki Lauda weighed in on the penalty handed out to Max Verstappen in the United States Grand Prix, describing the decision as "the worst I've ever seen."

Verstappen was penalized for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage by cutting the inside of Turn 17 at high speed when overtaking Kimi Raikkonen for third place. With the incident coming on the final lap, Verstappen was demoted to fourth after the race but Mercedes non-executive chairman Lauda was unhappy with the stewarding.

"We had meetings at the start of the year to see how far stewards should go in decisions during a race because it always says 'under investigation,'" said Lauda (pictured with Red Bull team principal Christian Horner). "So we complained about that and the stewards were there, Charlie [Whiting] was there and we were there, and there we agreed all together that the stewards would not interfere.

"Very simple. If the driver goes over another and upside down, only then would they weigh in. That was at the beginning of last year. Six months it was OK, but this decision was the worst I've ever seen.

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"He did nothing wrong. These are racing drivers and we are not on the normal roads and it is ridiculous to destroy the sport with these kind of decisions. At the next strategy meeting we will put it back on the agenda and start all over again, because we cannot do that. They go too far and interfere and there was nothing to interfere with. It was normal overtaking."

Lauda added that he believes the incident is down in part to tracks allowing drivers to use curbs and run-off areas in such a way, with a number of drivers running wide on the exit of certain corners at Circuit of The Americas throughout the race weekend.

"Charlie argued all the time there are white lines and you cannot drive over them, but why can you not drive over white lines if it is possible? Build a wall there if you want, but as long as there is normal circuit you can use it. The white line is not a limit, we agreed this last year. It was all agreed and now this. I think it's wrong, completely wrong."