Max Verstappen’s brand of racing is based around his speed, and his notion that he will run you off the road to take positions. In some situations it’s entertaining. But in many, including Sunday in Spain, it is embarrassing and dangerous.
Verstappen and Red Bull put themselves on an unknown quantity by putting on hard tires for the late safety car restart in the Spanish Grand Prix. Meanwhile, everyone around them had soft tires. It seemed quickly that this was probably a mistake.
Verstappen nearly crashed coming out of the final turn onto the main straight, allowing Charles Leclerc to make his way past (but not without contact!).
Then heading into turn one, George Russell tried to follow Leclerc, but he ended up making contact with Verstappen, forcing the Red Bull driver into the run off, but retaining the position.
Max Verstappen's brand of driving is dangerous for F1
Then came the moment Red Bull, having made a horrible strategy choice already, decided that Verstappen should give the position back. Verstappen did so for about one second ... and then seemingly drove right into Russell.
Verstappen ended up getting a 10-second time penalty for this move, dropping him to 10th place. He now is one penalty point away from a race ban. It's a move that can only be described as a driver seeing red and not being able to calm down in the moment.
This isn't the first reckless move we've seen from Verstappen - we saw it time and time again in the 2021 title battle. We saw it in some of his battles with Lando Norris last season (think Austria). There's a line between silly moves and moves that are part of a driver's repertoire. We already knew this about Verstappen, but Sunday was the most flagrant.
But over and over again, Verstappen has received a slap on the wrist and has not adjusted his reckless style. Because why would he? The overall repercussions aren't enough to make a difference.
Verstappen only needs to make it a few race weekends before he drops some of those penalty points, so he likely won't face a race ban.
F1 needs to stop rewarding Max Verstappen
For too many years now, Verstappen's antics are excused because it's expected of him. It's the style that his fans expect from him and want from him. It's gone on so long, it feels like he has an exception for him to do these things, and people will just shrug their shoulders and say 'well that's just Max! That's what he does!'
From one weekend to another, we saw a stronger penalty for a corner-cut than a deliberate shunt. At a certain point, the steward's room and the sport has to sit down and, first, be more firm and consistent about their decisions and, second, reign in the Verstappen standard. They must recognize that his way of competing shouldn't be able to go on.
More than likely though, Verstappen will say an antagonistic quote where he takes no responsibility, it'll get put on a quote graphic on social media, and fans will laugh, thus forgetting how flagrantly stupid his driving was on Sunday.
That's the standard which has been set.