Bernie Collins has pondered whether Max Verstappen’s actions at the Spanish Grand Prix were fuelled by his belief that he’s not in the F1 2025 title fight.

Verstappen courted controversy at the Barcelona race when he clattered into George Russell in a move that the Mercedes driver felt was “very deliberate”.

Max Verstappen lost nine points with his Spanish GP penalty

Lining up for a Safety Car restart late in the Grand Prix, Verstappen was attacked by Charles Leclerc, with minor contact between the two down the front straight.

Leclerc emerged ahead in that battle and Russell tried to capitalise into Turn 1.

Verstappen and Russell bumped wheels, with the Dutchman using the escape road before rejoining the action ahead of the Mercedes.

He was told by Red Bull to give the position to Russell and appeared to do so into Turn 5 on lap 64, only to move to accelerate once more and hit Russell.

Both drivers were able to continue to the chequered flag, after which Verstappen was informed that he had a 10-second time penalty that dropped him from fifth to tenth.

That cost him nine points in his title defence, the Dutchman trailing Spanish Grand Prix winner Oscar Piastri by 49 points after nine races.

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Asked if the penalty and those lost points could affect his title hopes, he told Sky F1: “If there are any [hopes].

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

Collins wonders if that belief if why he was willing to risk it all in that moment with Russell.

“It’s interesting that he says he thinks Drivers’ Championship hopes were never alive,” mused the former Aston Martin strategist, “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?”

‘When you upset him, the lion comes out’

However, her fellow Sky pundit Naomi Schiff believes Sunday’s antics were born more from Verstappen’s frustrations.

Not only did the driver have to take the restart on hard tyres, he had contact with Leclerc that he felt was the Ferrari driver’s fault and then had his battle with Russell.

Schiff said: “This is all about temperament because at one point Max gets the news that he’s on the hard. He’s already frustrated about the fact that he’s on that hard tyre. It then goes wrong for him.

“He’s told that the incident with the Leclerc is going to be ignored, so he’s frustrated about that.

“Then he believes according to these very prescriptive rules that the drivers have now been given instructions on how they can and cannot overtake, he believes he’s done the right thing in that situation [at Turn 1] and George is in the wrong, and then he’s told to give the position back.

“We know that with Max there was more than one or two reasons to get him upset. When you upset him, the lion comes out.

“Of course, that doesn’t make it OK. But that frustrated him. And then when he gets to that moment with George, I’m not even sure he fully gave the position back.

“I don’t know if he was actually in the right position to try to sort of make these rules look silly by saying, ‘OK, I’ll do the same thing, prove to you guys that this is not how it works by doing it the other way around’.

“So yes, I do think it’s bizarre that he’s so far back and then all of a sudden, he comes off the brake a little bit and runs with a lot more speed into that corner than he would have done a lap before, so possibly intentional.”

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