Max Verstappen has broken an “unwritten rule” by not showing up the Formula One drivers’ end of season dinner in Abu Dhabi.
The new tradition is supposed to see all 20 drivers come together following the conclusion of the campaign to celebrate over dinner and drinks.
But this year’s meal had a number of notable absentees including world champion Verstappen, The Sun reports.
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Only 11 of this year’s drivers posed for a picture in the restaurant with the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, George Russell and Daniel Ricciardo all present.
While McLaren stars Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were with the group, but missed out on the snap around the table.
And despite seven drivers including Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso missing the dinner, it’s Verstappen’s no-show that will cause the biggest stir.
As the world champion he is on the unfortunate end of an unwritten rule that means he should be the one footing the bill.
Former Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg previously took to social media to let fans know about the secret ruling, saying: “The hidden agreement usually is that the world champion pays.”
Although that wasn’t the case at last year’s dinner when Verstappen got away with not paying once again.
Instead it was Hamilton that laid down his credit card despite the Dutchman being the champ in 2022.
And there were no missing drivers that year as they all gathered to say goodbye to the retiring Sebastian Vettel after his last season on the grid.
It was a rare occasion to see all 20 drivers in the same place as Pierre Gasly revealed on the Beyond The Grid podcast.
He said: “I’ll remember that moment forever. It was the first time in five years we all got together.
“That’s what made it so authentic, and that’s probably one of the very few times you’ve seen the real side of people and drivers.
“You’ve always got closer relationships with certain drivers, but it’s almost like on that dinner, from the moment we closed the door, we all took our cap off our heads, and we’re like, ‘Okay, now, it’s just you get whatever you see.’”
Many of the drivers from the dinner were back in their cars on Wednesday for the final testing runs of the year.
Russell was involved in a horror crash in the tyre testing session at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where F1 had held its season finale on Monday morning.
Russell, who earned a podium with a P3 finish in Sunday’s race, had completed a Grand Prix distance of 58 laps over the course of the testing day when he was forced to call it quits early.
A suspected component failure in his W14 car caused it to crash into the wall at Turn 6 by going straight on rather than turning, bringing out the red flags.
After the crash, Mercedes said Russell had emerged from the accident unscathed with the wreckage being brought back to the pits with a tow truck.
A post from the team on X, formerly known as Twitter, said: “We have the car back and have already begun investigations into what caused the accident.
“Most importantly, George is completely OK.”
— This story originally appeared on thesun.co.uk and has been republished with permission
