If you’re like Kenny Wallace, you probably watched the Hungarian GP to familiarize yourself with the current happenings of the F1 world as NASCAR takes a two-week break for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Regardless, NASCAR saw Kyle Larson’s first-ever Brickyard triumph making its due noise on Sunday. But so did the cussing and controversy called out by reigning champ, Ryan Blaney. Now coincidentally, defending F1 champ Max Verstappen also found himself in waddling hot water this weekend. Max called out his Red Bull team’s strategy with some flowery language after a fairly troubling P5 finish at the Hungaroring.

Although NASCAR isn’t the type to mind a little language, the same cannot be said about our open-wheel compatriots from across the pond. Hence, the FIA sternly warned their drivers to tone down their frustrations over the radio. And as it happens, a surprising number of NASCAR fans have come forward to defend Verstappen’s heated comments, including the outspoken veteran, Kenny Wallace.

F1’s clean image takes a hit

F1 had a first-time winner last weekend. 23-year-old Oscar Piastri won the Hungary GP in his sophomore year as a McLaren-Mercedes F1 driver. But an incident involving Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton with 7 laps to go to the end of the race was only one part of the theater the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix turned out to be. Battling for the final podium position, Max made contact with Hamilton’s car in Turn One, which lifted his own a few feet off the ground. While, as a result, Hamilton was to maintain his track position and finish third, Max limped on to a top-5 finish.

However, 10 laps before any of this would happen, the defending F1 champion was fuming at his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase for apparently giving him a “s*** strategy.” In his own words, Max said to Lambiase over the team radio, “It’s quite impressive how we let ourselves get undercut… It’s completely f**ed my race.”

Max’s frustrations over the radio are certainly understandable considering he went winless in three races for the first time since 2021. But Formula One management was not having any of that.

According to The Times, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali warned teams in a recent commission meeting to ask their drivers to keep a check on the swearing. He reminded everyone that some radio communications make their way onto live TV. And it serves as a fair reminder since collective motorsports in general have seen an influx of younger fans in recent times.

When the media asked Max about the whole situation, he had his own justified arguments. As per ESPN, Max said, “You know, if people don’t like my language, then don’t listen in, turn the volume down you know,” he said. “I’m very driven to success, I think I’ve proven that already, I always want to optimize stuff, now people can argue that he might not be so vocal on the radio but that’s their opinion… We are very open-minded, very critical of each other, been working for us very well so I don’t expect that to change… I think it’s important you can be critical because in this world we are living now I feel anyway a lot of people can’t take criticism anymore like it used to be and I don’t want to end up like that.”

As an X (formerly known as Twitter) page named ‘Fastest Pitstop‘ highlighted the situation, with a caption that noted how Max “insisted he would not change his language,” Kenny Wallace interacted and shared the post with his 367k+ followers to discuss.

According to the post, Max believed there was no need for him to apologize to his team or Gianpiero Lambiase personally after the infractions. He defended himself further, saying, “[If] people don’t like my language, then don’t listen in; turn the volume down.” Max’s frustrations received the spotlight again during qualifying for the Belgian GP.

Did Max’s frustration demand NASCAR’s support?

An incident with Stake F1’s Chinese driver, Zhou Guangyu, made Max Verstappen lose his temper again, and he let a few more profanities escape his mouth. He had qualified for the pole, but following this incident, the Dutch star fell to P11 on the starting grid for an engine switch.

But when Max Verstappen’s initial defense of the situation made its way to social media discussions through the official Kenny Wallace reshare on Twitter, it piqued the NASCAR nation’s collective interest quite a bit.

Fans were quick to engage as one of them replied, “It’s racing….there is gonna be swearing….it’s a given. Someone always gotta f*ck up our fun.”Another observed how “Listening in on a team’s radio is a privilege” and opined that “if you don’t like the language ……… change to another frequency just as you can change TV channels at home”.

A percentage of the audience was not alone in making the NASCAR comparison and remembered Terry Labonte while writing, “Those who have never done it don’t understand the intensity, I remember listening to Terry Labonte at a Daytona Busch race. Ice Man my a*s! Swearing like a drunken sailor.” 

Similarly, another fan took it only a step further when they appeared to be referencing Kyle Larson’s New Hampshire shutdown of his #5 team spotter Tyler Monn: “If you want to listen to the raw emotion, then you’re going to hear the driver tell his spotter to shut the fuck up. 🤷🏻‍♂ I’m not sure why that’s so difficult to understand 😂”

In a different light, others decided to touch on the sometimes elitist nature of Formula One racing, this member of the motorsports community wrote, “F1 is a world not for the common man. Only those with deep pockets and expensive suits are allowed in that world. This is why I cannot give any respect to that organization.” But that remark only irked the curiosity of other commenters, and a certain diehard decided to stand out when they put forth this earnest, yet believable question: “How long until they replace drivers with woke robots?”

Besides, any sports fan normally guided through emotions would any day appreciate a more human feel of things from their larger-than-life idols. To regulate the emotions of a competitor in any spectator sport, amateur or professional, is an injustice to the true spirit of competition. That said, moments like these should make a NASCAR fan feel grateful for the no-holds-barred nature of the world’s premier style of stock car racing.

But would you rather have drivers be a little more mindful of their language while racing on television on a given weekend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.