Max Verstappen’s Spanish Grand Prix was his ugliest race of the season so far, after failing to finish in the top six for the first time in 2025.
It leaves the Dutchman 49 points from the top in the drivers’ championship fight, and his frustrations are high. Verstappen’s emotions clearly came to a boil at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya after running into the side of George Russell, costing him at least 11 points.
Red Bull didn’t do him any favours by placing him on the hard tyres for the final few laps of the race, but if he had contained his emotions, he would have been walking away from the Spanish Grand Prix with a far better result.
Many rivals said the same thing about Verstappen and Russell’s clash and questioned why the four-time champion didn’t receive a bigger penalty for running into the Mercedes. He did receive three penalty points, which leaves him one away from an automatic one-race ban for the next two weekends.
In a surprising revelation, Verstappen is no longer the fastest F1 driver this season, after it was revealed that Charles Leclerc has actually been closer to his ideal lap time on average. It may be as a result of the Red Bull driver pushing too hard to make up for the current deficit to McLaren, which is somewhat significant.
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Max Verstappen was ‘pushed’ to copy Michael Schumacher tactic at the Spanish Grand Prix
Red Bull’s data said Verstappen eased off the throttle before running into the side of Russell, but the replays said it all. If the Milton Keynes-based outfit develops their car well between now and the end of the year, he might come to regret that decision.
Immediately after the race, aware that a better result had been left on the table, Verstappen apologised in Red Bull’s post-race debrief. It might have all been avoided if they had put him on soft tyres at the final stop, though.
James Allen, who has been in the Formula 1 paddock for decades, has spotted one similarity between Verstappen and seven-time champion Michael Schumacher after another incident. It might explain his approach to the media after the event.
“All of these things [Red Bull mistakes] are a pattern,” he said. “So when he says I’m not in the title fight, you say, well, hang on a second, you’ve got a quick car, you’re in the mix. But it’s not that. It’s about the ultra-high performance.
“Ben, you mentioned you wrote a great commentary piece on this topic about why sorry seems to always be the hardest word for a certain type of champion racing driver. [Verstappen was] a bit like Schumacher, I was right at the front line of this many, many times.
“He was pushed by the media to justify his actions and to sort of own up to it. In that time on a tradition, he sort of refused to because they don’t want to be made to do something. That they’ll do it of their own accord or not at all.”
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Toto Wolff made one ‘telling’ comment about Max Verstappen after the Spanish Grand Prix
Verstappen has been linked with two teams if he were to decide to leave Red Bull ahead of the 2026 season. Both Mercedes and Aston Martin are considered to be the front-running candidates.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff made one telling Verstappen comment after the clash with his own driver in Spain. He refused to place blame on his rival, which says a lot about relations and his future plans.
It appears that he doesn’t want to burn any bridges between himself and the Verstappen family, and by keeping the door open, there’s always a chance that he will move in the future.
It may not be for 2026, considering that his current contract doesn’t expire until 2028, but growing frustrations over the state of Red Bull’s development could spark conversations at least.
