Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands steers his car during the Spanish Grand Prix Formula One race at the Barcelona Catalunya racetrack in Montmelo, near Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, June 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Back in 2013, the Formula 1 (F1) race in Spain showed what it looked like for a driver to actually drive their car all out for an entire race. In modern F1 racing, tire management and reducing the number of pitstops are key to winning a race, while speed is necessary for qualifying. However, Fernando Alonso was driving for Ferrari at his home race in 2013 when he drove all out, using up his tires and making four pitstops. He won the race after starting fifth.

The length of a pitstop changes from race to race in F1, depending on how long the pitlane is and where the pit speed limit is enforced. In Spain, the average time lost on a pitstop is about 22 seconds, so if you take more pitstops than people around you, you need to make up that time on track. Not many drivers are able to do so, but on that day in 2013, Alonso wowed the crowd by doing just that.

Max Verstappen was 15 years old during that race and was lighting up the tracks in multiple karting championships. Twelve years later, he’d take to the track in Spain and emulate Alonso’s 2013 drive, making more pitstops than the drivers around him but still making up time on track to be competitive.

At the start of the race, Verstappen took off from third position and passed Lando Norris heading into the first turn to take second place. In comparison to Norris and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, Verstappen’s tires degraded at a quicker pace and he was eventually passed by Norris who reclaimed second place. Verstappen immediately dove into pitlane for fresh tires.

While many thought this was an awfully early pitstop by Verstappen, it was part of the Red Bull strategy to put Verstappen on a three-stop race when those around him were on a two-stop race. Verstappen’s pace showed this was a good strategy as the three leaders were very close together on track after they each completed their last planned pitstop.

Piastri led the race a little more than three and a half seconds ahead of his teammate Norris, who was in turn nearly three seconds ahead of Verstappen. The times got down to well under a second between Norris and Verstappen. He was a real challenge to the McLarens’ chances of winning the race.

Until lap 55, that is. Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes engine expired, leaving him a passenger in his unresponsive car as it barreled into a gravel trap. The stewards wasted no time, calling for a full course safety car very quickly. Piastri and Norris both went into pitlane for new tires, and Verstappen followed behind them.

Unfortunately for Verstappen, he left the pits on the hardest tires available while everyone around him was on the softest tires available. This left Verstappen quite vulnerable as those tires were predicted to be three to five seconds slower per lap compared to the soft tires. He was livid on the radio, chastising his team for the strategy blunder. In reality, those were the only tires his team had left for him.

With only a handful of laps left in the race, the safety car pulled in and the racers went back to full speed. As he rounded the final corner, Verstappen’s car lurched wildly as he tried to get some temperature into his tires, and he nearly lost control. This allowed fourth place Charles Leclerc to pull his Ferrari up alongside Verstappen. The two bumped together at very high speed as Leclerc passed by.

Immediately on the radio once again, Verstappen was now venting his frustrations onto Leclerc for intentionally running his Ferrari into Verstappen’s Red Bull. While racing fans in the United States have long heard the phrase “rubbing is racing,” that mantra is not something that is part of the culture in F1. Though Leclerc had not broken any rules of racing in his push left into the area of Verstappen’s car, Verstappen was also trying to push Leclerc to the right and into the “dirty” side of the track where rubber pellets that rub off the tires build up and make for slippery driving.

While Verstappen was still trying to convince the world Leclerc did him wrong, George Russell kept his head in the race and pulled his Mercedes alongside Verstappen into the next corner, attempting to pass the Red Bull. Verstappen tried pushing the issue into the corner, ran out of room, and took to the runoff area, rejoining the race back ahead of Russell.

Verstappen was still yelling into his radio that Leclerc should give the position back. Meanwhile, the stewards were investigating Verstappen for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in his duel with Russell. The Red Bull strategists came on the radio and told Verstappen to give the position back to Russell, in the hopes they’d avoid a time penalty that could cost Verstappen even more points.

Now entirely incredulous, Verstappen harangued his team. There was absolutely no reason to give a position to Russell in Verstappen’s eyes as Verstappen thought he was fully ahead and entitled to the corner in that incident. Still, the team gave him a directive.

Verstappen slowed his car, seemingly to let Russell past. As Russell brought his Mercedes alongside, Verstappen hit the gas and banged his car into the Mercedes, tire to tire. Neither car was damaged to the point they couldn’t be driven, but the move left commentators briefly speechless.

In the end, the stewards cleared Verstappen for the original investigation into leaving the track and gaining an advantage, but penalized him 10 seconds for causing a collision. They also gave Verstappen three points on his Super License, a requirement to be a driver in F1, putting him one point away from an automatic one race ban.

While his temper was on edge, Verstappen now finds himself on the edge of being forced to sit out a race and watch his championship hopes fade. Lashing out behind the wheel of the car also cost Verstappen points as the penalty dropped him to tenth place and earned him just one point in the driver’s championship, as opposed to the ten he would’ve received for finishing fifth.

On the other end of the spectrum, Piastri started from pole and never lost the lead of the race, serenely driving in front of the pack to his fifth win out of the first nine races. He expanded his lead on his teammate to ten points, and the gap to third place Verstappen is now 49 points (up from 3 points and 25 points respectively). In other races, nothing seems to have phased Piastri and the carnage unfolding behind him in this race showed him to be just as unflappable.

Alonso, mentioned for his win in 2013, is still racing in F1 with the Aston Martin team now. He was one of just two drivers who had not scored any points in the driver’s championship in the first eight races, the worst start of his career since his rookie season in 2001. In Spain, once again in front of his home crowd, he managed to find glimpses of his former self and drove to a tenth place finish, earning him one point. Verstappen’s penalty bumped him up one place, and similarly, one more point.

F1 has some travel time built into the calendar for the teams to make their way to Canada where they will race on Sunday, June 15, at 2 p.m. Eastern Time.