In hindsight, the fiery blow-up was somewhat inevitable. In the scorching heat of the Catalan sun on Sunday, enraged as a plethora of events rapidly unravelled against him, Max Verstappen eventually overheated. It’s not the first time; it won’t be the last.
The first thing to note is that his erratic swerve into the side of arch-rival George Russell, in the final laps of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, was clearly deliberate. Russell was fortunate he did not sustain race-ending damage. If he did, the punishment for Verstappen would have been worse than a 10-second time penalty. A disqualification may have been inevitable.
Instead, Verstappen dropped from fifth to tenth, costing him nine points in the world championship, received three penalty points on his FIA superlicence and will live to fight another day. Even if the Dutchman is now just one mishap away from a race ban, he only needs to keep it clean for the next two rounds before he has breathing space again.
Most uncharacteristically, Verstappen’s infuriation was on this occasion a by-product of a quickfire double error on the Red Bull pit-wall. Kimi Antonelli’s late mechanical failure resulted in a safety car with 10 laps to go. Most of the field pitted, switching to quicker soft tyres. Verstappen did not have that option, instead switching to more durable, but slower, hard tyres.
“What the f*** is this tyre?”, Verstappen queried over team radio to trusted engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. The Dutchman almost lost his car at the restart, magnificently saving his Red Bull from spinning into the wall, before losing third place to Charles Leclerc.
Given the tyre choice, Verstappen should not have pitted; he’d have been better served staying out, taking the lead of the race, and trying to defend in the closing five laps on older, soft tyres.
The second error soon followed. Verstappen then clashed with Russell at turn 1 and took to the escape road, rejoining ahead of the Mercedes. Believing his man to be at fault, Lambiase instructed Verstappen to give Russell the place. The Dutchman was apoplectic, seemed to move over to allow the overtake, before driving recklessly into the Brit.
Lambiase was wrong. The stewards’ verdict after the race stated neither driver was to blame for the Verstappen-Russell contact at turn 1. He should not have told his driver to give up fourth.
Of course, this does not excuse Verstappen’s road-rage and ramming of Russell, who dealt with the matter admirably post-race.
“I’ve seen those manoeuvres before in simulators and go-karting, not in Formula 1,” he said. “It seems completely unnecessary.”
Verstappen’s response: “I’ll bring some tissues next time.”
This is not the first time the red mist has descended on the four-time F1 world champion. His accruing of 11 penalty points in the past 12 months is evidence of that. Teetering on the edge of hero and villain, sometimes Verstappen crosses the line the wrong way. Not, in fact, unlike other F1 greats before him.
Sebastian Vettel, like Verstappen a four-time champion with Red Bull, was widely damned for driving into Lewis Hamilton at the 2017 Azerbaijan GP. Angered by Hamilton “brake-testing” him under a safety car, the German moved alongside the Brit and turned his Ferrari purposefully into Hamilton’s Mercedes.
Vettel received a 10-second stop-go penalty, effectively adding 25 seconds to his race. Perhaps a similar time sanction would have been appropriate for Verstappen in Barcelona.
Further back, seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher was infamously disqualified from not just a race, but the whole 1997 world championship, after turning in on championship rival Jacques Villeneuve at the season-finale in Jerez. Title winner Villeneuve finished the race in third while Schumacher retired, but the FIA gave the German an unprecedented penalty, removing him from the championship standings.
Clearly, Verstappen is in this breed of driver. Inspired and mesmerising behind the wheel of a racing car, as shown in the last year by his terrific overtake on Oscar Piastri in Imola or his scintillating pole position in Suzuka or his incredible drive from 17th to first in the Sao Paulo rain last year, the Dutchman’s instinctiveness also flips the other way, bubbling overboard in clashes such as those seen with Russell in recent months.
Verstappen will not change. In fact, why would he change? His attitude towards racing, in attack and defence, in the stewards’ room and over team radio, is what makes him one of the modern-day greats.
It also makes him wonderfully authentic; he is a no-nonsense character and will say it completely as it is. His bona fide opinions are what endear him to a worldwide fanbase, even if his fans in the UK are at a premium, given past skirmishes with Hamilton, Norris and Russell.
A necessary evil, Verstappen’s self-destructiveness goes hand-in-hand with his generational genius. On Sunday, it cost him nine points as he looks to somehow keep in touch with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris out in front. But those asking him to change, to adapt and modify in the heat of battle, will only be disappointed.
