With his fifth podium finish in seven race weekends, Max Verstappen got the maximum out of the first Formula 1 race at the Madring. The Dutchman managed to take second place in the Spanish Grand Prix behind Kimi Antonelli, which according to the four-time world champion was even more than he actually deserved.
“We maximised the result and probably had a bit of luck with, of course, the unlucky situation for Lando [Norris, who missed the opportunity to pit under the VSC]. I didn’t have the pace of Kimi and I definitely did not have the pace of Lando”, Verstappen said in the post-race press conference.
“So yeah, we’re here on the podium and I think that’s great, but we still lack a little bit to really fight for the win.”
The fact that Verstappen finished only behind Antonelli perhaps raises the question of whether he could even have won the race had he not given up positions in the opening stages. Verstappen was instructed by his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase to give the place back to Lewis Hamilton, but with Antonelli between them at that point, in practice that meant giving up two positions.
Verstappen voiced his displeasure over the team radio, but deep down knew that he had to comply with the team’s request, as he acknowledged afterwards.
“Yeah, what am I supposed to do? If they tell me that I have to do it, then I will do it,” the Dutchman said.
Verstappen is also certain that if he didnt comply, he would have received a time penalty from the stewards: “If I hadn’t done that, then I would have received a penalty. No chance.”
That said, the current number six in the championship standings still believes he was in the right. The Red Bull driver says Hamilton was no longer in control of his car over the kerbstones and added that he had to go off the track to avoid a crash with his 2021 title rival.
Second place was all Max Verstappen could muster in Madrid
Photo by: Thomas Coex / AFP via Getty Images
“I would have had damage at the start if I would have stayed on track, so then the win was also not on. It’s as simple as that,” Verstappen explained.
“I just did my own thing in Turn 1, but Lewis went for a move on the first two [drivers] and bottomed out on the kerb. He just jumped back onto the track and that’s why I had to go off the road.
“If I would have stayed there, I would have definitely had contact. Then my race could potentially have been over in Turn 2, and that’s why I think I’m happy to be where we are now.”
According to Verstappen, there was no more than second place available anyway, while based on pure pace it should have been the last spot on the podium.
“We sometimes profit a little bit from some misfortune of others, but we are also trying to really maximise and sometimes, maybe, yes, slightly overperform. And that’s good,” he said.
“That is the only thing that we can do at the moment. Now we rely on making our package, our overall package, a little bit stronger to really be in a potential fight for the win.”
Max Verstappen: “We sometimes profit from some misfortune of others”
Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images
At the moment, Red Bull simply lacks the outright pace to do that, despite it looking close in the closing stages in Madrid. Verstappen ran within a second of Antonelli for several laps, but according to him that picture was misleading and, in reality, he had no chance against the championship leader.
“It might have looked a little bit like we were in a fight for the win, but that was more because Kimi was getting held up by Charles.
“As soon as he had clean air, he just drove away from me again and I was busy with Lando behind me. But around here, if you just drive a little bit in the middle, then yeah, you can’t pass.”
Red Bull is, however, limited in what it can still do with the RB22. Laurent Mekies has already acknowledged that the budget cap makes it impossible to maintain the development rate from the first half of the season.
Verstappen added in Monza that some updates will still be introduced for the 2026 car, but that the focus behind the scenes has already shifted to 2027.
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