Max Verstappen gives a negative review of the tyres at the F1 2025 Emilia Romagna GP by revealing the degradation meant he couldn’t push them hard at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari; comments that won’t please Pirelli after they made a key change for the weekend.
The defending world champion qualified second in Imola on Saturday, May 17 and missed out on pole by just 0.020 to Oscar Piastri’s McLaren, who snatched it away on his final run.
And such a fine margin left the Red Bull star was left with a bit of a sour taste in his mouth as the Italian tyre manufacturer brought the softest compound in the range in a bid to make Formula 1 less predictable on Sundays.
However, Verstappen reveals he had to pay the price on Saturday in light of the key change at the 2025 Emilia Romagna GP as he gives a negative review of the Pirelli tyres by admitting he couldn’t push his RB21 flat out and that the mediums would have been a better choice.
“I think compared to yesterday, we improved a lot again. The car is a lot nicer to drive,” Verstappen told members of the media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “The only problem I had in qualifying was basically the faster I wanted to go, the more problems I had with the tyres just overheating.
“That was holding me back in Q3 already, run one and then when I tried to go faster on the second run, Sector 1 was great, and then I just ran out of tyres. I just started understeering more, and just tried to keep the lap together, really.
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“That’s a bit of a shame. We came in and I saw George was on a medium and honestly, I also felt better in FP3 on the medium. But you don’t really have the tyres to qualify on it properly.
“And of course, for tomorrow, we want to make sure we have the tyres in a good window.”
Verstappen satisfied with Red Bull progress in Imola
Friday’s Free Practice sessions left the four-time world champion far from happy in northern Italy, even being spotted hitting his steering wheel in frustration after a moment at the Tosa hairpin in Sector 2.
However, the engineers and driver pulled together overnight and managed to turn the set-up of the RB21 around to find some much needed performance to make sure they stayed ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes, and got ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.
For a Friday full of frustration for Dutchman, he now feels happier as he praises improvements for the balance but admits there are still problems to be solved for the team.
“Yesterday was a tough start,” Verstappen admitted. “But I think today we definitely put it in a better window.
“I was a bit happier with how the car was coming alive and also the balance of the car. So that’s a positive.
“It’s just that the tyre compounds this weekend didn’t really help us by being that soft because we know we overheat our tyres more than we would like. So that is still a focus point for us.”
