You have to stop Max Verstappen. The multiple world champion is undoubtedly the most talent pilot of the grill at this time. But it is also one of the most dangerous, and if F1 continues to allow you to get yours with a simple pull of ears, you can only end very badly.
The last incident with the wandering Dutch occurred during the Spain Grand Prix on Sunday in Barcelona. A furious, already furious Max with his boxes for having put the hard tire, which made him lose rhythm in the resumption, immediately blamed Charles Leclerc and George Russell for the tire coup while struggling to defend his fall in fall. But what happened next surprised even the most staunch defenders of Max: Verstappen fell to the side, apparently yielding the position to Russell by order of his team, who had to be worried about a sanction. And then Max accelerated directly against the Mercedes of George.
A sanction of 10 seconds was imposed quickly, it could be said with a suspicious rapidity, such as to put an end and avoid imposing more punishments and risk interfering too much in the championship. Whether or not the case, a sanction of 10 seconds is excessively generous.
In 1997, the legend of the F1 Michael Schumacher – which was never precisely known for following the rules to the letter, despite its immense talent – was disqualified from the entire championship for trying to intentionally collide its rival for the title, Jacques Villeneuve, based on Schumacher infringing the racing regulations.
I do not see what is different in this incident. Russell is not rival for the title, but mathematically he could still win it. Max is not on the edge of the title after the ninth race, but even the only point he added could make a difference at the end of the season.
Max has a long history of “career incidents”, and clearly what the F1 is doing has not worked, because this has been its worst moment. In Abu Dhabi 2021, he made a braking test to Lewis Hamilton, ramming them in the line. That year, the car landed in his head and then shouted on the radio: “This is what happens if you don’t give me space.”
More recently, he has forced Lando Norris to get out of the track several times, with more than one contact. If there was ever contact in front, they were always Max and Lewis, Max and Lando, now Max and Russell. The common denominator here is Max and his style of running “yields or crashed.”
The sad thing is that it does not have to be so. Max has an immense talent, and has led that clumsy Red Bull of 2025 to the contest for the World Championship only thanks to his talent.
It is enough to observe the long list of second -line pilots who have failed – Pérez, Lawson and Tsunoda, who end out of the points frequently – to see that Max’s ability often drags his car at the top two positions, while his teammate ends up in the 18th position or worse. Max is one of the best pilots in the history of motor racing, but his attitude is one of the worst that have been seen.
