Bernie Ecclestone tells Max Verstappen how he could have ‘avoided’ Saudi Arabian Grand Prix penalty

Formula 1 has changed an awful lot since Bernie Ecclestone made his only attempts to compete in the sport back in 1958.

There were only 11 Grand Prix that year, although Ferrari were still the most iconic team on the grid, and they won the drivers’ championship thanks to British driver Mike Hawthorn.

Bruce McLaren was still competing before setting up his F1 team, while Red Bull wasn’t launched a drink, let alone a racing organisation, for another 30 years.

Bernie Ecclestone may no longer be directly involved in the running of Formula 1, but he is still very much having an influence on the sport.

Ecclestone called into the latest F1 commission meeting, providing his verdict on the upcoming regulation changes.

However, in the short term, the action on track is keeping his and everybody else’s attention, with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix the latest event to take place during the 2025 season.

Oscar Piastri came out on top in Jeddah, closely followed by Max Verstappen and then joined on the podium for the first time by Charles Leclerc.

Although the Australian finished the race with a three-second advantage, that doesn’t tell the whole story about how he ended up leading the championship from teammate Lando Norris.

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Bernie Ecclestone tells Max Verstappen his Saudi Arabian Grand Prix mistake

Verstappen and Piastri lined up alongside each other on the front row of the grid, and the 24-year-old got a better launch heading into turn one.

Piastri was ahead when he reached the apex, but Verstappen came out in front by the time they navigated the opening sequence of corner.

Verstappen was handed a five-second penalty for cutting the corner and gaining an advantage, even if Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was unhappy with the stewards decision.

The photo that Christian Horner is using to show Red Bull’s belief that Max Verstappen was ahead of Oscar Piastri’s the apex at Turn 1 #F1 #SaudiArabianGP pic.twitter.com/nZC00jpyDK

— Chris Medland (@ChrisMedlandF1) April 20, 2025

Ecclestone was speaking to the Swiss outlet Blick about the situation, and he said, “That could have been avoided.

“Why didn’t Max give the position back immediately? Because making up five seconds is usually difficult under normal conditions.”

In response to the penalty Verstappen was given, Red Bull chief advisor Helmut Marko explained, “We had discussed giving back the position in the pits, when the penalty had already been imposed.”

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Max Verstappen sees positives from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix despite penalty call

For Verstappen, the most important aspect of the triple header was staying in touch with both McLaren drivers in the championship standings.

He delivered the perfect race in Japan, and while the race in Bahrain left people questioning Verstappen’s Red Bull future, he proved once again in Jeddah that he’s going to be a constant threat to Andrea Stella’s team.

Speaking after the race in his official post-race press conference, Verstappen said, “Overall, it was a very promising race.

“We were a bit unfortunate with the penalty, but besides that the car was strong. We had a lot of difficulties on Friday with our tyre management, so to have such a positive Saturday and Sunday meant that we really improved the car a lot.

“I was positively surprised to see how competitive we were on the mediums. I, of course had to try and open up a gap, but to actually pull away from the cars behind was nice.

“Afterwards on the hards, it took a bit of time before I felt fully comfortable and we were getting a bit of understeer in the car.

“Despite everything in the race, getting P2 quite close behind Oscar was overall a positive weekend for us.”

It’s a far more positive assessment of where Red Bull are compared to last weekend, although Yuki Tsunoda’s first lap accident means Horner once again doesn’t have a benchmark to see how far off Verstappen the team’s number two driver is.

The upcoming race in Miami will hopefully help answer that question, although Red Bull’s championship hopes rest of the Spanish Grand Prix, and the upcoming rule changes that could negatively impact McLaren.