Max Verstappen felt badly treated by Red Bull in Barcelona, claims Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg feels Max Verstappen felt badly treated by Red Bull during the F1 Spanish GP, and that contributed to his flare-up during the race. The race in Barcelona was an eventful one for the Dutch driver, but in a manner that was not desirable.

With a few laps left until the end of the race, it did appear that the Red Bull driver was destined to finish P3 behind the McLaren duo. He had driven a strong race, and even though the car was not on the level of his rivals, he did make things harder for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

A late race safety car changed everything as Max Verstappen was forced to pit for hard tires. While he was the only one on that compound, drivers around him were on soft tires. This infuriated the driver because he was going to be vulnerable at the restart. Not only that, but the incident in the turn at the restart, where George Russell made contact with the Red Bull, made him even more furious.

In what was the tipping point for Max Verstappen, he was told by Red Bull to give the place to George Russell. While giving up the place, Verstappen ended up hitting the Mercedes driver's car and incurring a penalty.

Talking about the incident and what happened in the lead-up to it, Nico Rosberg claimed that Max Verstappen felt badly treated by Red Bull before the incident. He told Sky Sports F1,

"There is no need to discuss, it’s super obvious. He felt badly treated, even by his own team, because he was in the right. Russell’s car was out of control so he was allowed to stay in front. His engineer said ‘give the position back’."

He added,

“That put the lion over the boiling point. He wanted to prove a point, against the rules also. He waited for him then tried to do the same as what George did to him - ram him. Except this time it was deliberate. It’s not acceptable, not allowed.”

Max Verstappen's shock at the hard tires was a surprise.

Bernie Collins also touched on the other aspects of the strategy, where she said that changing tires was the right call, but she expressed surprise at Max Verstappen's reaction to the hard tires. When the Dutch driver first saw the tires, he was shocked that Red Bull put him on hard tires, as Collins felt that this was something that the driver should have known as part of his strategy. She said,

"It was a good race by him until that point. They had a hard tyre because of the three-stop strategy. But that was surely discussed overnight. ‘If we get a Safety Car, what are we going to do? Put on a very used soft or a hard tyre?’"

He added,

"That should have been a part of the discussion, as well. It was the right thing to stop. On those old tyres you are going to be overtaken.”

Max Verstappen ended the race in Barcelona with a P10 finish. The Dutch driver is now 49 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri, and the chances to fight for the title continue to decrease.