“All that matters here is that Nico Hulkenberg finished fifth for Sauber.”
This feels like one of those race reviews where I think I’m doing everyone a favour by skipping the foreplay. 2025 just had another major Championship flashpoint, and once again, Max Verstappen’s at the forefront. Let’s talk about it.
Beyond A Reasonable Doubt
It’s a double shame, really. This was actually a pretty good Spanish Grand Prix. A genuinely intriguing strategic race between Red Bull and McLaren and Max Verstappen trying to force the issue with McLaren by running three stops. The latter’s pace wasn’t ever quite at McLaren’s level, but it was close enough to keep him in the frame and make McLaren stay alert just in case Max tried to run long on a 2-stopper. But with Kimi Antonelli suffering an oil pressure failure, we had a Safety Car and a six-lap sprint finish.
With everyone prioritising new(er) tyres over track position, everyone came in, including Max, and the only new set of tyres left after an accidental 4-stop strategy, was the Hard compound, which no-one touched all weekend because it was a donkey. Max proved that by nearly dumping it out of the final corner the moment the race went green.
Verstappen was limited at being dumped on the hard, he couldn’t get that tyre in the performance window, lost out to Charles Leclerc for third and George Russell immediately put him under pressure. Max gets told on radio to give the place back to Russell, Max argues about it, and then hits the side of Russell’s car as he comes around the outside of Turn 5.
Max is hit with a 10-second time penalty after the race was over, dropping him from 5th to 10th. I’ve done enough picture painting here, so let me put this in big letter so my stance is established from the off:
DO I THINK MAX DID THIS ON PURPOSE? YES. DO I THINK THE PUNISHMENT WAS FAIR? …PROBABLY?
Let me explain why.
Yeah, from all the angles I had as a TV viewer, I think it’s gratuitous. Max intentionally slows down for Turn 5, acting like he’s going to let Russell through, then I suspect he accelerates early out of the apex of the corner and hits Russell as he comes around the outside of him to reclaim the position.
Now, in my personal opinion, it’s that sudden acceleration where I’m asking serious questions. I think that was intentional, and if that’s the case, I’m opening up the extreme end of the rulebook. Given the precedent set by Fernando Alonso when he “brake tested” George Russell at Australia last year, 20 seconds seems like an appropriate punishment, roughly what a pitstop was. In the heat of the moment, I said “Drive Through Penalty”.
I think the people saying this is a Schumacher on Villeneuve from Jerez 97’ and talking about race bans and season bans, were looking for Max to be made an example out of, and I don’t think we should be making reputational based calls in stewarding, it opens the doors for bias – It’s why we have the penalty point system in place, to clamp down on repeat offenders.
For me, and call me wild for it – I look at stewarding in the same way I look at courts of law. Now I don’t have the same amount of information that the stewards did going on, who claim on the document they read the telemetry of both cars, but if we’re holding “intent” in the court of opinion, the burden of proof needs to be extremely large to go beyond the UK court’s key language of “Beyond a reasonable doubt”. If there is ANY mitigating evidence that goes against that accusation, you have to say “not guilty”. And I think ultimately, that’s what the stewards did.
The stewarding in Motorsport is already ropey at the best of times – If we start lowering that burden of proof and we start describing more incidents as “intentional”, we may start handing out extreme penalties like Stop and Go’s and Black Flags for incidents that simply don’t warrant that degree of punishment. Take Liam Lawson, a driver I’d argue has had more than his fair share of clashes on track this season – What if one of his, like breaking Alex Albon’s front wing, was deemed deliberate? Are we parking him for the day? It’s a slippery, dangerous game at the best of times, throwing in bigger grey areas as to what’s deemed an “extreme” incident, is only going to make the decision making process even more questionable.
And you know how I know the stewards had an inkling on intent? Giving three penalty points to take Max to 11 (The maximum for a single incident), and the brink of a Race Ban (12). It’s the same three points MotoGP gave out to Valentino Rossi when he “intentionally” took out Marc Marquez in Sepang 2015. The only reason Rossi started the final race at the back was because he already had one point on his license for blocking Jorge Lorenzo in Misano. A convenience, more than anything else. If Max breathes out of place in the next two weekends, he’s banned. Even if he makes it past that, he’s spending the rest of the season on 9, and at risk of being banned from any incident depending on severity.
As for Max Verstappen – It’s incredibly frustrating to see him suffer an industrial bout of head loss. Max is, and I’m not mincing my words here – One of the greatest ever, and one of the most intelligent drivers I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t need to drive the way he does with his incredible talent but like the story of the Scorpion and the Frog, He’s a scorpion, and it’s part of the reason he is the juggernaut and burden he is. It was a brilliant drive from him today ruined by his own recklessness.
He’s never been able to control his anger under pressure, and his lashing out while behind the wheel is a danger to himself, and others. I ultimately get why the sport didn’t throw the book at him here, but I think it should have done. However you feel about the incident, I leave Barcelona with a bitter, sombre feeling.
I don’t want my racing to feel like this. And yet, here we are…
The Lightning Round
From a competitive standpoint, this season is probably done. The Flexi-Wing drama seemingly turned into a damp squib. McLaren, like they have for most of 2025, had two to three tenths on the rest of the field at a minimum. And with 2026 looming from a development standpoint, we’re going to start to see teams move their resources away from this season, if they haven’t already. The only real question left is, which McLaren driver wins the title? Because Max losing 24 points to Oscar Piastri and doubling his deficit is probably all she wrote.
Charles Leclerc was probably the big winner of the chaos, with another podium finish and another excellent drive in a Ferrari that just isn’t with the big hitters, and once again comfortably ahead of Lewis Hamilton. How many more races pass before we’re allowed to be genuinely concerned for the GOAT?
Nico Hulkenberg.
Dre’s Race Rating: 7/10* (Good) – This was a genuinely good Spanish GP. Some good overtakes, intriguing strategic questions asked, and then a chaotic finish at the end. If nothing else, I can’t say it wasn’t entertaining. But given how you feel about the Verstappen clash, the Asterisk is there for a reason. See you in Canada.
