Max Verstappen simply believes Red Bull are “too slow” as he called off his chances of winning a fifth straight World Championship.

That admission came following a disappointing Spanish Grand Prix for Verstappen, who received a 10-second time penalty for colliding with George Russell which dropped him to P10 in the final classification, as his deficit to Drivers’ Championship leader Oscar Piastri increased to 49 points.

Max Verstappen: F1 2025 title chances over?

Frustration grew for Verstappen as his three-stop strategy fell apart in the latter stages of the Spanish Grand Prix. Kimi Antonelli retiring his Mercedes in the Turn 10 gravel was the instigator for the Safety Car and unravelling of Verstappen’s race as the frontrunners all made an extra pit stop, with hard tyres the only option for Verstappen.

That left him up against drivers around him on softs, and after rescuing a huge slide coming onto the main straight upon the restart, Verstappen received hits from Charles Leclerc and Russell as they came through, or eventually came through, in the case of Russell.

A banging of wheels at Turn 1 sent Verstappen into the run-off and Red Bull’s call to give P4 to Russell only further frustrated the Dutchman. It appeared as though he was going to oblige at Turn 5, but after initially slowing, Verstappen got back on the power and hit Russell’s Mercedes.

The result was a 10-second penalty, plus three penalty points on his Super Licence which takes Verstappen to within one point of a race ban.

And when told post-race by Sky F1 that the penalty – which dropped him to P10 – impacts his title hopes, Verstappen replied: “If there are any.

“I think we are way too slow anyway to fight for the title. I think that was clear again today.

“We tried to do a three-stop, and I think it was quite good. It was quite racy. But we also needed it, because we had actually quite a bit of degradation on the tyres. So I think that was good.

“Unfortunately, of course, the Safety Car came out at the end, and we basically ran out of tyres. And the hard tyre was clearly not the right tyre. I mean, when you only have six laps to go, everyone can go flat out, and I was severely grip limited on the hard.

“We have to look at it again. Of course, new tyres, or at least fresh tyres, they do make quite a bit of a difference as well. So I think no one really expected maybe that the hard tyre was so poor. But yeah, when it was only six laps, maybe it would have been better to stay out. But that’s, of course, a bit easier to say right now.”

Key stats following the 2025 Spanish GP

👉 F1 penalty points: Verstappen dangerously close to race ban after Russell clash

👉 F1 points all-time rankings: Where do Hamilton, Verstappen and Alonso feature?

Sky F1 analyst Bernie Collins – formerly McLaren’s lead performance engineer and Aston Martin’s strategy chief – pondered whether Verstappen’s lack of belief in a title challenge was reflected in his collision with Russell.

She said: “It’s interesting that he says he thinks his Drivers’ Championship hopes were never alive, because is that why he’s sort of happy to give up those points and not settle for third or fourth and not let Russell back by?

“But yeah, it was a good race from him up until that point.”

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