“I think now I’m at a stage in my career where I don’t want to deal with this all the time. It’s really tiring,” Verstappen said. “When I got into qualifying, I realized the car was destroyed.” Here we go. That’s the phrase that started this whole ridiculous FIA crackdown on sworn drivers. And according to Max Verstappen, his words could be the catalyst for his retirement from Formula 1 earlier than he had planned. The “F” word earned Verstappen a penalty from the top of the FIA and he was “forced to do community service” to pay for his misdeeds. After the penalty, Verstappen chose to quietly protest the whole scenario, giving short, curt answers to questions during the post-session press conferences for this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix. To avoid further penalties for saying something inappropriate in the official FIA press room, Max held his press conferences on the floor outside the room. During one of these media scrums, Max admitted that he might consider an early retirement due to the FIA’s decision to punish him severely for his indiscretions. “Of course, this kind of thing also decides my future,” said Verstappen. “You know when you can’t be yourself, or you have to deal with such nonsense. I think I’m at a point now in my career where you don’t want to deal with this all the time. It’s really tiring.” “Of course, it’s great to be successful and win races, but after you’ve achieved all this by winning championships and races, you also want to have a good time.”