Red Bull’s Max Verstappen lashed out against the constant comments and questions about his F1 penalty points situation, labelling it as “childish” and “annoying” after yet another question about his approach to racing after qualifying for the 2025 Canadian GP.
The Dutchman qualified on the front row for Sunday’s race, just 0.160s behind pole-sitter George Russell – coincidentally, the driver with which he had a collision at the Spanish GP a fortnight ago, which earned him a 10s time penalty and three points on his licence, bringing his total up to 11 from the 12 allowed for a 12-month
“Childish” penalty points questions “pissing off” Verstappen
After repeatedly answering during the week that he wouldn’t change anything in his approach, Verstappen finally lost his patience after qualifying for the F1 Canadian GP, as he heavily criticised the “annoying” nature of such questions, stating it is “childish” and a “waste of time” to keep talking about it:
“I don’t need to hear it again,” he said. “It’s really pissing me off. I mean, you were speaking about it on Thursday. It’s such a waste of time. It’s very childish.
“So, that’s why I also don’t want to say too much because it’s really annoying, this world that we live in.”
Medium tyre run worked out as “planned”
The reigning world champion was far more interested in talking about his and the team’s actual qualifying performance, which proved to be a good session that he is “happy” with after making good calls with the tyre choices, especially running the medium tyres in Q3:
“It was fine,” he said when asked about his lap. “I mean, I made progress every qualifying.
“We planned it with a medium [tyre] like that, and everything worked well. So I’m happy with that.”
Focusing on overall performance instead of solving balance issues
Verstappen explained that although there are no significant updates on the RB21 this weekend, the car has been in a more favourable working window since first practice, and that has allowed him and Red Bull to gradually extract the most from the package at the Canadian GP – which hasn’t been the case in many F1 grand prix’s this season:
“Well, I mean, the car has been the same as Barcelona, but I do think the team did a great job,” he said. “When we arrived, the car was immediately in the right window. So setup-wise, I think the team did a very good job.
“And then, of course, it’s fine-tuning little bits and choosing the right tyres for qualifying. But overall, I’ve been fairly happy with the car, which has definitely been a bit more hit and miss for us this season.
“I think we just also need to focus on the overall performance that we maybe are lacking sometimes, [because] sometimes we are chasing the balance of the car.
“So it’s two different things. But this weekend, I felt good, and that’s why I’m also very happy, honestly, to be [P2] today in qualifying.”
Tyre management will be key to a podium
Looking ahead to the race, the Dutchman hopes to secure a podium through good tyre management, in what is expected to be a very close race between one- and two-stop strategies:
“It felt okay yesterday [in the long runs], I was fairly happy with the car,” he said. “You just need to look after the tyres. There was a bit of graining for everyone yesterday, so we’ll try to keep that under control for tomorrow, also with the warmer temperatures.
“I think being on the podium, trying to be as competitive as we can be, trying to extract the most out of the car. But I don’t know.
“We’ll probably find out after the race if we did so. But, yeah, hopefully we can just be good on tyre management.”
