Who slept worst last night: Max Verstappen

Late on Sunday evening after the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix, once the sturm und drang had dissipated, I typed this prompt into ChatGPT for a bit of fun: “Suppose you wanted to artificially create the perfect Formula 1 driver in a lab – what would the result be?”
 
“Interesting question,” was the response. “A perfect Formula 1 driver from the lab would be an idealized blend of physical, mental, technical, and social abilities,” essentially “a genetically and psychologically optimized synthesis of the best of the best,” or “a hybridized image of Verstappen, Alonso, Hamilton, Senna, and Vettel. With the analytical precision of an engineer, the mental stability of a Zen monk, and the killer instinct of a predator.”

When I asked which driver of the current generation comes closest to that ideal, the AI replied: “At the moment, Max Verstappen is the closest to a perfect Formula 1 driver when considering the combination of driving skill, technical understanding, mental strength, and consistency. But he is not ideal in every aspect.”
 
It identified eight key criteria that define the perfect Formula 1 driver: reaction time, strategic understanding, aggressiveness, fitness, technical feedback, charisma, political savvy, and media skills. I believe Verstappen is at the top in all of these categories.
 
But the near-perfect Formula 1 driver – who has repeatedly proven in recent years why he’s considered the best of his generation – still hasn’t pruned away one major flaw: when things don’t go his way, his fuse is alarmingly short, as the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona demonstrated all too clearly.
 
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff’s theory – that Verstappen may have simply been trying to position himself for a counterattack on George Russell after Turn 5 to immediately retake the position – can safely be tossed in the bin. At least, that’s not what the telemetry data suggests.
 
Coming out of Turn 4, both Verstappen and Russell initially go full throttle – which is standard behavior at that point. But then Verstappen not only lifts off the gas, he even briefly taps the brake – which quite clearly indicates that, for at least a millisecond, he intended to follow the advice of his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase and let Russell through to avoid a penalty.

What must have gone on in Verstappen’s head after that remains a mystery. When Russell was alongside him on the outside and also lifted off, preparing for Turn 5, Verstappen suddenly floored it again. And his steering input, viewed from the helicopter perspective, looked suspiciously like he was willing to risk a collision.
 
“If it was road rage, which I can’t imagine because it was too obvious, then it’s not good,” said Wolff. “For me, it’s just incomprehensible. But I don’t know exactly what the motivations were, and I don’t want to jump on it and say, you know, this was road rage, etc. Let’s see what his arguments are.”
 
One thing is clear: Verstappen made a mistake. And it’s also clear: the move in Turn 5 was a blatant foul. The crucial question, however, is this: was it a deliberate act to hit Russell’s car? A knee-jerk reaction in a moment of weakness? Or simply a terribly unfortunate, yet ultimately honest mistake?
 
The entire world, not just Wolff, wanted to hear from Verstappen what he had to say about the incident on Sunday evening. But instead of raising his hand and admitting to an error, he grumbled curt responses into the microphones during interviews. And the question of all questions – whether it was intentional or not – he dismissed defiantly: “Does it matter?”

Later, Rachel Brookes from Sky commented: “Because you pull off something like the move in Imola, and we all see what an incredible driver you are, and it’s horrible to see that shine taken off.” To which Verstappen simply replied: “Is it?”
 
Brookes insisted: “For fans and for kids watching, I think so.”
 
That was too much for Verstappen. He snapped: “Okay, well, that’s your opinion.” And off he went.
 
Max Verstappen is probably the best F1 driver of his era. He pulls off overtakes no one else would dare. He crushes team-mate after team-mate, takes pole positions nobody would expect of him, and wins races in a car that’s not the best.
 
But one thing he is not: a gracious loser who knows how to do control damage in moments of defeat and own up to mistakes with honesty.

What happened yesterday in Barcelona didn’t just damage his reputation – it also hurt his points tally. Without the cold-blooded act of revenge, which ultimately dropped him back to P10 owing to the inevitable time penalty, he would have finished at least fifth, probably fourth, and possibly even third.
 
And then the gap in the standings wouldn’t be as large as the 49 points he now trails by after nine of 24 grands prix.
 
What’s more: with 11 penalty points in the last 12 months, he is now just one step away from a race ban. The first two penalty points expire on 30 June, the Monday after the Austrian Grand Prix.
 
In other words: if something goes wrong for him again at Red Bull’s home race on 29 June, he may be watching the British Grand Prix at Silverstone from the sidelines.
 
Some are joking that maybe this exactly what he’s planning. Spielberg is always one of the highlights in Verstappen’s race calendar, thanks to his “Orange Army”, making Austria a favorite summer party destination. Most of the time Verstappen wins there and, afterwards, the beer flows in rivers before hundreds of caravans head back toward the Netherlands – often not until Tuesday.

Silverstone, on the other hand, might appeal to him less. In Lewis Hamilton’s homeland, the crowd’s hearts don’t exactly beat for Verstappen. Competing in the NLS Light four-hour race at the Nurburgring as ‘Franz Hermann’ that weekend might just carry greater appeal.
 
After all, if you listen to some of his more defiant interviews, it seems he himself no longer truly believes he has a realistic shot at beating the dominant McLaren force to the championship in 2025 anyway.
 
I can’t imagine Verstappen slept well last night. His blood pressure was audibly elevated in Barcelona and it’s difficult to visualize him drifting off peacefully in the evening, with a clear head and a sense of contentment.
 
Maybe now it’s time for Helmut Marko and Jos Verstappen to take Max aside and (gently but firmly) explain how that moment of madness in Barcelona didn’t primarily hurt Russell – but above all, himself.
 
And maybe that way, he can finally shed his last remaining weakness. So that one day a large-language model answering my initial question will simply say that the perfect Formula 1 driver created in a lab would look exactly like Max Verstappen.