A series of frustrating incidents for the Spanish version of Max Verstappen unleashed his lion, believes Sky Sports F1 analyst Bernie Collins.
Verstappen endured a difficult afternoon at Barcelona on Sunday, crossing the line in fifth place and was relegated to 10th after an incident penalty with George Russell in the second half of the race.
Verstappen was angry at Team Radio with multiple points during the race. First, Liam Lawson and Oliver Bearman express their frustration first as they failed to give him a room while he was rapping.
However, when Kimi Antoneri got on track later in the race due to a mechanical breakdown, the problem reached the head, leading to an untimely safety car for the Dutch.
The four-time world champion was baffled by Red Bull’s decision to switch him to slower hard tires, especially when everyone around him bolted soft or medium tires.
Later, when the safety car was peeled off into the pit, Verstappen suffered a big snap from the final corner, allowing Ferrari’s Charles LeClair to take him down fourth in the starting/finish straight. The pair also made light contact as the Ferrari became transparent after crossing the starting line.
Furthermore, when he braked Turn 1, he dealt a blow along with Mercedes driver George Russell, who took him to the escape road.
Worse, Red Bull asked him to pull back his position at Russell, prompting an outburst of anger over Team Radio.
All this slowed down at 5 turns, speeding up again, leading to a controversial clash with Russell, leaving a shy embarrassment that now bans races.
“We’ve unleashed the lion” about Max Verstappen at the F1 Spanish Grand Prix
Max Verstappen
Collins, a former Aston Martin strategy engineer, believes the clash at Turn 5 is the result of being frustrated with Verstappen as he joined Russell questioning whether Dutchman’s move was intentional.
“This is about temperament, because Max has received news that he’s going hard,” she explained.
“He’s already frustrated by the fact that he’s on those stiff tires, which doesn’t work for him.
“He is said to be ignored by the incident at Leclerc, so he is unhappy about it.
“He believes he was given instructions on how drivers can and cannot overtake them according to these very normative rules.
“In Max, we know there are multiple reasons to upset him, and when you upset him, the lion comes out.
“Of course, that’s not okay, but it irritated him, and when he reached that moment with George (in turn 5), I’m not even sure he’s fully regained the position.
“I don’t know if he was actually in the right position to try and make these rules look ridiculous.
“Yes, I think it’s strange that he’s going back all of a sudden, he’s off the brakes a bit and running at a much more speed than he’s going at that corner.”
The 10 penalties Verstappen received dropped him from the 5th to the 10th in the final order, leaving only one point behind from Barcelona’s weekend.
The dominant four-time world champion is currently facing a 49-point deficit for championship leader Oscar Piastri, who won the fifth weekend in Spain, but Norris is excluded from Verstappen, who has 37 points in his second position.
At the start of the race, Norris fought for the second position in Turn 1, so he never fought Burstappen.
Norris later regained the second, past Verstappen before the end of the first stint.
Collins confirmed that Verstappen’s title aspirations were a huge hit in Barcelona.
“It was massive and we talked about turn one of the races, one lap, one,” she explained. “Norris was a bit conservative in Turn 1, but he was looking at the big picture of the championship. In this championship, he knew that race defeats were big, and that would make a big difference.
“Max became increasingly frustrated throughout the race. It starts with the blue flag, the strategy goes wrong, not as fast as he wanted, and unfortunately it ends at a single point at this stage.”
