Following each Formula 1 race, driver Jeroen Bleekemolen shares his insights in an exclusive column. He discusses who or what stood out, what went well, and what needs to change. This time, after the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, he focuses on Max Verstappen‘s costly miscalculation. For the first time this season, Verstappen lost control and received a significant time penalty. As Bleekemolen notes, ‘Even great champions sometimes short-circuit.’
Yesterday, during the final stages of the Spanish Grand Prix, we saw a side of Max that we hadn’t seen in a long time. I think we would have to go back to the start of his F1 career to find a similar instance, but it was clear that he had a momentary lapse on Sunday, allowing anger and frustration to take over.
The incidents involving Max in the final stages were triggered by the safety car situation caused by Kimi Antonelli’s retirement. Max had already made three pit stops and only had a fresh set of hard tyres available for the unexpected fourth pit stop. This ultimately proved to be his downfall.
Upon restart, Max momentarily lost control of his car on the new tyres. The car skidded. I rarely say anything negative about Max, given his consistently impressive performances week after week, but this was indeed a weak moment for him. Charles Leclerc took advantage of this, overtaking him with greater speed, which led to brief contact. Then, of course, there was the contact with George Russell, which caused Max to leave the track to maintain his position. When his team instructed him to give up his spot, there was further contact as Russell passed. To put it mildly, this was not a smart move.
‘He won’t easily make up for this’
And suddenly, due to a time penalty, you find yourself in P10, earning only one World Championship point and suffering serious damage in the championship race. It’s still a long season, but he won’t easily make up for this. Especially since he doesn’t have the fastest car, and World Championship leader Oscar Piastri is in good form, demonstrating control week after week.
Max clearly lost control on Sunday afternoon. I’m not entirely sure where it came from. I recall an incident in Baku where Sebastian Vettel suddenly crashed into Lewis Hamilton. Great champions sometimes just short-circuit. They are so provoked that they can occasionally cross the line. In Max’s case, it was a real shame – if you look at the points – and especially unnecessary. Just keep it clean, follow the rules. And if your team says you have to give up a position, just do it.
Max had a red mist in front of his eyes for a moment. And that’s okay, because we’re talking about top-level sports here. Max is a top athlete who always gives everything to win, everywhere. And he was doing very well throughout the race, let’s not forget that. He was in contention for the win – partly due to a different strategy – which no one had expected beforehand. And then suddenly everything falls the wrong way and he couldn’t digest that at the moment. He momentarily lost control of his emotions.
‘Max has shortchanged himself’
I understand Max’s frustration, anger, and disappointment very well. You see everyone around you on red tires and you’re driving on the hard white compound and then you fall hopelessly off the podium. Compared to the performance of his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who is lapped, what Max achieves with the car is still top-notch, but he simply shortchanged himself with that action against George Russell. This was a bit like his father Jos that we saw. I have a lot of respect for Jos and I’ve raced a lot with him, but he had these kinds of moments too. This was a side of Max that you normally don’t see.
It’s now up to him to clear his head quickly, something Max is usually a master at, and pick up the thread again. After all, the GP of Canada awaits in two weeks. It’s just a shame that the deficit in the World Championship compared to Piastri has now become very large. Honestly, I think that gap will be difficult to bridge.
