F1 champion shocked over Red Bull treatment of Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen in Spain — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

F1 champion shocked over Red Bull treatment of Max Verstappen

Mika Hakkinen pointed to a moment at the Spanish Grand Prix

Chris Deeley

Sunday 8 June 2025 08:57 Updated: 18:46

A two-time Formula 1 world champion has expressed his bafflement at Red Bull's decision-making process at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Christian Horner's F1 team made the decision to bring Max Verstappen into the pits under a late safety car with only a set of hard tyres remaining, a tyre the team had never intended to run in the race due to its relative lack of pace.

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Verstappen's inability to get those tyres fired up for the race restart led to him being passed by Charles Leclerc and resulted in his infamous confrontation with George Russell, leaving him walking away from the weekend with more penalty points than championship points.

Former McLaren star Mika Hakkinen zoned in on the Dutchman's radio conversation when talking about the race on the Drive to Wynn podcast this week, with the four-time champion having to ask his team which tyre he was on following the pit stop in Barcelona.

Hakkinen admits surprise over Verstappen team radio

"I was very surprised about that question," the two-time champ said.

"Normally, the driver knows exactly what tyres he has and the condition of the tyres when they’re going to put them on the car during a race.

“When I saw them putting the hard tyres on Max, I thought, ‘This is not going to end up nicely because he’s going to struggle, he cannot get the temperature, he’s going to slide all over the place all the time and everybody is just going to be coming left, right and centre overtaking him and it's going to be painful."

While it's unclear whether restarting in first place on worn soft tyres would've ultimately been any better than the hard tyre strategy in a vacuum, it's undeniable that the major flashpoint with Russell would've been avoided in that scenario.

Verstappen admitted as much after the race, posting on Instagram that the tyre decision had partly 'fuelled his frustration' in the build-up to him ramming into the Mercedes star.

Red Bull Max Verstappen George Russell Aston Martin Spanish Grand Prix Mika Hakkinen