Guenther Steiner: Spanish GP clash with George Russell made Max Verstappen "even more unstoppable"

Guenther Steiner believes that Max Verstappen's move on George Russell during the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix ultimately made him a better driver, adding that "He'll be even more unstoppable and more clinical".

Verstappen crashed into the Mercedes driver after an earlier incident in the race when Russell made contact with the Dutchman on a race restart. The contact resulted in Verstappen running onto the escape road before rejoining the track ahead of Russell.

Red Bull instructed Verstappen to give the position back to avoid a penalty, a decision the four-time champion disagreed with. While it looked as though he was letting Russell pass, he drove into the side of the Mercedes before letting him through.

Verstappen was handed a 10-second penalty, which dropped him from fifth to 10th.

"I think that moment made him aware that he cannot do these things anymore because he loses too many points," the former Haas team chief said on The Red Flags Podcast.

"So I put it down as learning. Obviously, you learn by making mistakes. Learning is making mistakes, and I think that made him better because after that one, he never did anything stupid. I think he learned, and I think that helped him going forward.

Read also :

"So obviously it cost him at the time, but that cost was an investment because if he had continued to do it... I think he got that and therefore maybe he reacts to it because now he realised after what he did, I shouldn't have done this.

Guenther Steiner

Photo by: Kym Illman / Getty Images

"And obviously running into him saying 'Oh if this wouldn't happen', maybe it annoyed him because I mean whatever he says or we say about the points he missed, [it doesn't change] his points at the end of the season.

"If it hadn't happened, would something else have happened? We will never know because you cannot replicate something which happened before as we all know, again Captain Obvious here talking.

"For me, he saw that he shouldn't have done that, but he learned not to do it anymore and he didn't, so I think he matured.

"He's even a better Max Verstappen now than he was in Barcelona this year. Scary to think and maybe if he gets his temper in check, he'll be even more unstoppable and more clinical. A more clinical Max Verstappen is terrifying."

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team