Red Bull star Max Verstappen‘s actions during the outlap were noted by the race stewards at the 2025 Hungarian GP Practice 2. After the initial review of the incident, the FIA and stewards decided to investigate the incident after the practice session and summoned the Dutchman. Let’s have a detailed look at what the incident was, why Verstappen was investigated, and its outcome.

Max Verstappen’s qualifying simulation was over one second slower than Lando Norris’s. However, that was the least of Verstappen’s concerns as the race stewards noted the Dutchman with less than 30 minutes left on the clock.

Many, including the commentators, had no idea why Max Verstappen was noted when the warning first came up on the screen. However, as the replays were shown, it was found that the four-time champion, on his outlap for the soft tires run, actually took something out of the car’s cockpit and threw it out of the RB21.

Further slowed replays revealed that it was indeed a towel with a Red Bull logo embossed on it that was left in the car when Verstappen drove out of the pits. Coming out of the third corner, the Dutchman removed both his hands from the steering wheel, took the towel out, put his hand beyond the halo, and threw it out of the car.

The same was first noted by race control, but after an initial review, the notification from the Stewards suggested that it would be further investigated after the race.

As per the FIA’s official document, Max Verstappen was required to report to the Stewards after practice 2. According to DOC 13 issued by the FIA at the Hungarian GP, the reason for the summoning was:

“Alleged breach of Article 34.14 c) of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations – Car 1 allegedly being released in an unsafe condition at 17:29.”

Leaving the pitlane with anything inside the cockpit is considered an unsafe release, followed by Verstappen’s decision to throw the foreign object on the track. Even though it was thrown off the racing line and not a hard object, the breach of the regulation caught the eye of the stewards.

After Verstappen reported to the stewards and the investigation was completed, the FIA let the Dutchman and Red Bull off with just a warning. According to the FIA’s document:

“The Stewards determine that the towel had the potential to have become lodged in the footwell and to interfere with the driver’s ability to fully control the car and that therefore the car was released in an unsafe condition. The stewards consider this case to be distinguishable from a case where a hard (and therefore potentially dangerous) object is left in the cockpit and to be less severe than such a case. Hence a warning to the team is imposed.”

Verstappen was also dissatisfied with the RB21’s balance issues at Budapest during the second practice session, as was prominent from his conversation with race engineer Gianpero Lambiase (GP).

Max Verstappen’s struggles with understeer in the second practice at Budapest

Max Verstappen took to the Budapest circuit for the practice 2 session and was instantly miles behind the pace of the McLaren. Midway through the 1-hour practice session, all the drivers bolted on a set of fresh soft tires for the qualifying simulation. The Red Bull driver in the RB21 was all over the place on the soft tires and was clearly unhappy with the car.

The onboard camera showcased how the four-time champion wasn’t able to point the car towards the apex and was running wide into every corner. Towards the end of the session, as Verstappen was on the medium tires for a race simulation run, his race engineer, GP, asked:

“What’s the main balance limitation?”

“It’s front and rear mate, it’s just like driving on ice,” replied Verstappen.

“Mate I don’t know what’s going on… Just undriveable.. I can’t get any balance,” he added.

Max Verstappen finished practice 2 in P14, over 1.1 seconds slower than Lando Norris’ best laptime.