Max Verstappen will start Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix from the back after Red Bull swapped engine components on his RB21. The reigning champion complained about engine, clutch, and steering gremlins through Friday's running at Interlagos, vocal enough on the radio that the team broke curfew — their second allowed breach of the season — to sort the car overnight. The penalty drops him alongside George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in the penalty box, wiping out what looked like a solid weekend after P3 in FP2 long runs. Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies referenced Verstappen's São Paulo miracles: a win from seventeenth last year and a podium charge from the pitlane in 2025. That history matters. Verstappen has won three of the last four and sits second in the standings, while Red Bull clings to a seventeen-point cushion over McLaren in the constructors' fight with four rounds left. A Sunday recovery drive could pad both margins — if the rain Verstappen hoped for on Friday actually shows.
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