Max Verstappen forces Ralf Schumacher to eat his words after ‘biggest surprise’

Ralf Schumacher was forced to admit that he was wrong to write off Max Verstappen’s shot at victory in Baku following the Red Bull driver’s impressive romp from pole position to the checkered flag.

Schumacher’s assessment had been based on Verstappen’s admittedly lacking previous performances at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but the former F1 racer has had to admit that if anyone is capable of overcoming an historic deficit, it’s Verstappen.

Ralf Schumacher takes back Max Verstappen assessment after Baku

The story of the F1 2025 season has thus far largely been a story of McLaren dominance, but Verstappen has endeavored to change that narrative in the past two races.

At both the Italian and Azerbaijan grands prix, Verstappen snagged a pole position that he was able to hold onto throughout the race and all the way to the finish line.

At both races, the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri almost entirely failed to mount a challenge, with Baku serving as the team’s low point.

But to say that Verstappen was a favorite heading into the Azerbaijan event would be extremely audacious.

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Before the F1 2025 season, Verstappen had only managed to clock a single victory around the streets of Baku; while his former teammate Sergio Perez seemingly mastered the challenging circuit, Verstappen was left scratching his head.

Considering the difficult and unbalanced nature of Red Bull Racing’s RB21 throughout much of the year, it would have likely seemed foolish to assume Verstappen had a shot at dominating this particular race.

The fact that he did came as a shock to many onlookers — including former F1 driver Schumacher.

“From my perspective, that’s the biggest surprise,” he said of Verstappen on the Backstage Boxengasse podcast.

“But anyway, what do I care what I said earlier? Of course, I have to take that back!”

He had previous expressed his doubts that Verstappen had what it took to win a race like Baku.

“I didn’t expect it, because in previous years Sergio Perez was close to Verstappen,” Schumacher explained.

“Last year, he performed better in qualifying, something that rarely happens with Max. You just have to admit that, and the car wasn’t that good then either.”

But Red Bull, Schumacher points out, is a team transformed.

“It was all going super,” he said. “Of course, his performance was grandiose, but Red Bull also did an excellent job.

“If you take the numbers as a yardstick, Max, even compared to the rest of the year, did a great race.”

The driver’s talent is under no dispute; however, the same couldn’t be said for the quality of the RB21 throughout the earlier stages of the season.

A floor upgrade at Monza seemingly turned the tides, allowing the reigning champion to chop down the gap in points to leader Oscar Piastri from 104 to 69.

Whether or not that’s enough to afford Verstappen a chance to contest for the title remains to be seen.

Nevertheless, it provides some strong momentum for the Milton Keynes outfit as it prepares its 2026 challenger.

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