Max Verstappen only has himself to blame
Max Verstappen in a moment of reflection at the end of the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Max Verstappen’s reign is over. The count has been paused, but surely not stopped, at four F1 world championships.
Verstappen missed out on the title by two points to McLaren driver Lando Norris, who was crowned world champion for the first time at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It’s not hard to identify exactly where the title, through Verstappen’s eyes, was lost…
Max Verstappen’s moment of madness came back to bite him
A version of this article originally appeared in PlanetF1.com’s conclusions from the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Regrets?
Max Verstappen must have a few (don’t we all?). Not that you’d ever know, though.
Max, you see, doesn’t really do regrets. They’re not really his thing.
His mentality is that of the old-school generation of athletes, to whom admitting weakness – any form of weakness – is to giftwrap an advantage and present it to an opponent.
So it was revealing a few weeks ago when he spoke candidly about “the only point of criticism” of his season at the Spanish Grand Prix and that collision with George Russell.
“All signs went red.”
That’s what Max said of the moment he was instructed to give a position to Russell, obeyed the request, then thought about it again for a moment – the heat of the moment – and decided to give the Mercedes a bump.
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The result? A post-race penalty that dropped him from fifth to 10th in the final classification.
A glance at his 2025 results quickly reveals that was pretty much the only race all season long that Verstappen himself failed to squeeze every last drop out of a volatile Red Bull.
How he could have done with those lost points from Barcelona in Abu Dhabi on Sunday as he fell short of Lando Norris by just two.
It ultimately ended up denying him a fifth straight title in 2025, but that sort of incident could just as easily have cost him last year too.
Think back, for instance, to his mid-race meltdown in Hungary last year, when Max spent the race sounding as if he wanted to watch the world burn before a final, rash, ugly lunge on Lewis Hamilton.
Or his two 10-second penalties in quick succession for incidents with Norris in Mexico.
If McLaren and Norris had been better at taking their chances last year, and if it hadn’t rained on that Sunday at Interlagos, Max may well have found himself dethroned 12 months before now.
It has become fashionable to describe Verstappen, like so many multiple world champions before him, as a driver without weakness, yet these self-defeating moments of head loss have developed into a nasty habit.
And, at last, one has been duly punished.
More on Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing from PlanetF1.com
The good news is that Max is humble and self-critical enough to acknowledge his own shortcomings and work on his weaknesses, a strength common among the greatest drivers in the sport’s history.
“That was a mistake from my side,” he said of Barcelona. “And of course I learn from it.
“Those moments won’t happen again next year, even if we’re in a similar situation with the car.”
Let this, then, be a lesson.
Mindlessly giving away crucial points to the opposition, knowing how much it could cost him at the end of a season?
Bet your bottom dollar that he won’t be making that mistake again.
What Max Verstappen said about Spain after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Verstappen was considerably less reflective when asked about Spain in the post-race press conference in Abu Dhabi.
Put to him that he might regret his collision with Russell in hindsight, Verstappen was combative.
“You forget all the other stuff that happened in my season,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets. “The only thing you mention is Barcelona. I knew that would come.”
As a stony silence descended on the room, Verstappen took issue with the reaction of the reporter, Giles Richards of the Guardian, who had put the question to him.
“You’re giving me a stupid grin now, I don’t know,” he added. “Yeah.”
He then pointed to the “early Christmas presents” handed to him by McLaren in the closing months of the season as he reduced a 104-point deficit to the top of the standings to just two come the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi.
“It’s part of racing at the end. You live and learn. The championship is won over 24 rounds.
“I’ve also had a lot of early Christmas presents given to me in the second half, so you can also question that.”
Now this was more like the Max Verstappen we are familiar with, the one totally reluctant to admit any form of weakness in the public eye.
It was a little reminiscent of Max’s reaction at the height of the only true crisis of his F1 career in early 2018, described in depth in PlanetF1.com’s conclusions from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix earlier this season.
Verstappen was asked for the billionth time in the press conference ahead of that year’s Canadian Grand Prix if he was finally going to change his approach after a hugely costly mistake in Monaco.
Max’s response, you’ll recall, was to threaten – with half a smile – to headbutt the next person to ask him that question.
That comment stole all the headlines, of course. Potentially by design.
Because that very weekend heralded the first appearance of a new, maturing Max visibly more circumspect and channelling his natural aggression in a smarter way.
Are we witnessing a similar thing here nearly eight years on?
Beneath all the bravado, Verstappen will know deep down that he can’t afford a repeat of Spain 2025.
Reader reaction: Max Verstappen’s reign and Spain
William Copley: I am pretty sure that Verstappen lost the title because the Red Bull car was bad before the Summer break. Not because of Barcelona. After the Monza upgrade Max won 6 of the last 9 GP races.
Mark (in reply to William Copley): Any points losts unnecessarily will be costly, in this case it was totally unnecessary and very costly.
Craig Thornton: Pretty lazy writing, but expected, to say Max lost because of one event. A championship is won over many races
Keith Barclay: Oliver Harden needs to “Get Over Max”!
This whole, “biased STORY” seems to pick on Max for being the man he is, even at such a young age! This wouldn’t be the same individual that was told by Max that he asked this same question, with a “silly grin” (Quoted by Max), would it🤔???
If so, as Max said, at the time of being questioned, why not focus on the blatantly obvious positives of the rest of his season and the amazing deficit of 104 points and reeling the temperamental, Norris back in to just 2 points and a very convincing, totally controlled final race of 2025???
Even Steven: Considering how much better the McLaren car was it isnt good that the WDC was only won by 2 points. The Red Bull was a bad car for 1/2 the year
ricahrdb: Without McLaren’s blundering Max wouldn’t have been near the championship fight. There have been dozens of incidents where mistakes of drivers or teams influenced that result. It’s a bit too much trying to make that one incident the reason for everything.
Edv: Let this be a lesson for Oliver Harden. Every single driver made mistakes this season. Yes, Max made a mistake in Spain and so did Lando in Canada and Oscar in Baku. A bit narrow-minded to bring 24 races down to 1 event. Maybe suffering from mind-fog?
Bob: The most entertaining thing was Max and his red mist moments. They are absolutely funny and entertaining. Only Vettel comes close.
Pieter: So who do you think out drove his car the most this season? Who kept us on the edge of our seat? I think we can thank Max for keeping this season interesting until the end of the season iso focusing on the Russell incident, that is kind of weak.
K T: If Max wasn’t the kind of person to do what he did in Spain he wouldn’t be the kind of person to claw back a 100+ points deficit in an inferior car, take the title down to the wire and win more races than the actual world champion.
So let’s stop pretending Spain cost him the championship and acknowledge that no one else could have even fought for the championship in this year’s Red Bull. Congrats to Lando BTW!
William Danes: Oliver Harden continues nitpicking on Lando, listing all the mistakes he can think of, yet for Max, his “glance” of Max’s season only recalls one Max issue – ramming Russell in Spain.
Harden skipped all the other Max mistakes, Australia, Silverstone, qualifyings…
Crost: Oh dear… Why focusing on Max error? Had RBR decided not to pit in Spain, he would have grabbed enough points.
Had Kimi not struck him in Austria, if Kimi did not make his mistake in Qatar, if Belgium race was started in the wet, if McLaren did not swap Norris and Piastri in Monza… Not great journalism.
John Poppy: This is like Massa assuming the races after Singapore were EXACTLY the same if Bernie and Max had voided the race.
If McLaren leave Brazil with Max 40 points behind Norris, they probably play a very safe game in Vegas with the setup. Then the championship is game over in Qatar.
A McLaren should have won Japan and Imola. Vegas double DSQ was daft. Piastri also binned it in Baku and Melbourne, then went awol for 6 races.
Lando made a meal out of Saudi and Montreal, made some mistakes in several Q3 sessions that cost him track position on race day, had some beneficial team orders, then had a podium robbed with a retirement.
Across all the sessions, McLaren and its drivers dropped the ball far more often. This should have been done by Singapore.
Red Bull screwed up the strategy in Barcelona, delivered a shocking car in Hungary and Brazil (before rebuilding it), and contrived to have their second driver pinch a measly 2 points off of Lando or Piastri.
Because of all of that, Max’s penalty MAY have cost him the title, but he also made a mistake by spinning in Silverstone (after setting the car up for dry conditions). That’s really not a long list.
You can’t expect absolute perfection over 24 race weekends. But eesh, I’d be surprised if we ever see another driver get closer than that.
Trento: Max wasn’t punished for his Barcelona error. It was too long ago and all drivers will only start counting as the season progresses.
Even Norris had his fair share of errors but with some nice favours from the team, it didn’t hurt him much. I’m sure if Max didn’t lose those points, Norris and Zak would just make some decisions and make up for the loss.
This is also why Kimi’s error in Qatar made no difference. Zak would just ask Piastri to move aside to give Norris p2.
Corstiaan: Max did many unthinkable things. He went to heights no one is currently able to.
And yet we talk about Barcelona as a season defining race.
Mind boggling really.
What if Max had become WDC while squandering 100+ points to Russell to defeat him on his last legs while still driving the best car? Do you think the reports in the British tabloids would praise him for such an effort?
Read next: The haunting Verstappen question: Did Red Bull do everything it could win to the title?
