The 2025 Formula 1 season for Red Bull was marked by highs and lows: here are the moments in which Max Verstappen proved decisive.
The 2025 Formula 1 season ended without a fifth world title for Max Verstappen, but reducing the Dutch driver’s campaign to a simple defeat would be deeply misleading. The final gap of just two points to Lando Norris only partially reflects a year in which Verstappen was a central figure, capable of producing some of the finest performances of his career despite driving a Red Bull that was less dominant than in recent seasons. After the Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen found himself as many as 104 points behind in the championship standings.
In an extremely competitive championship, that situation seemed to have definitively compromised his title ambitions. And yet, from that moment on, the Dutchman launched an extraordinary comeback, coming within a whisker of a title that only weeks earlier had appeared completely out of reach. Over the course of the season, Max Verstappen repeatedly showed why he remains the technical and sporting reference point of Formula 1. These are five moments that left a lasting impression across the paddock.
Suzuka: the pole position that overturned every prediction
One of the defining episodes of 2025 came in Japan. After a difficult start to the season for Red Bull, struggling with an RB21 that was nervous and hard to interpret, McLaren appeared to hold a clear advantage in terms of outright performance. At Suzuka, however, Verstappen rewrote the script. In the final moments of qualifying, thanks to a low-downforce setup choice that proved decisive, the Dutch driver stopped the clock at 1:26.983, snatching pole position from Norris by just 12 milliseconds.
It was a lap built with absolute precision, delivered at a moment when everything pointed towards an all-McLaren front row. The weekend then ended in the best possible way with victory in the race, in what was Red Bull’s final Japanese Grand Prix alongside Honda, adding further emotional weight to the result.
Imola: a textbook overtake
The Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix represented one of the highest points of Verstappen’s season. After a poor launch at lights out, the Dutchman immediately made amends at the first braking zone, taking the outside line through Tamburello with a move that was as bold as it was clean. The overtake on Oscar Piastri, who had started from pole position, required courage, car control and a perfect reading of the situation, surprising even those accustomed to Verstappen’s brilliance.
Unsurprisingly, that manoeuvre was later awarded Overtake of the Year and Action of the Year by the FIA. From that point onwards, Verstappen controlled the race with authority, making the most of a safety car period and securing his second victory of the season.
Monza: the fastest lap in Formula 1 history
The Monza weekend saw Verstappen write his name into the record books. In qualifying, with a lap time of 1:18.792, the Dutch driver set the fastest lap ever recorded in the history of Formula 1, at an average speed of over 264 km/h. This mark surpassed the previous record set by Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes back in 2020.
While acknowledging the contribution of the new asphalt and circuit modifications, Verstappen also pointed out that modern cars still do not surpass, in ideal conditions, the peak performance of Mercedes’ dominant machine from a few years ago. The following day, a race win by almost 20 seconds completed a historic weekend, further highlighted by the record for the fastest race ever held in Formula 1.
Baku: total dominance and Verstappen’s sixth grand chelem
In Azerbaijan, the Dutch driver delivered a flawless weekend. Pole position, the race lead maintained for all 51 laps and the fastest lap in the race combined to produce a complete grand chelem, the sixth of his Formula 1 career. This achievement allowed Verstappen to draw level with Lewis Hamilton in this exclusive statistic, trailing only the legendary Jim Clark.
His race management was impeccable: Max Verstappen never relinquished the lead, not even during the pit stop phase, rejoining comfortably ahead of George Russell before building a winning margin of more than 14 seconds at the chequered flag.
Brazil: from the back to the spotlight
If there is one race that encapsulates the essence of Max Verstappen, it is undoubtedly Interlagos. Knocked out in Q1 and forced to start 16th, Red Bull opted for a radical approach: a new Honda power unit and setup changes under parc fermé conditions, resulting in a pit-lane start. The race appeared compromised from the early stages, when a puncture forced Max Verstappen into an unscheduled stop.
From that point on, however, an impressive comeback began, defined by clinical overtakes and flawless management of every phase of the race. The final third place allowed the Dutchman to join an exclusive group of drivers who have reached the podium after starting from the pit lane, coming within mere tenths of second place.
Towards the 2026 F1 season: Red Bull and Verstappen facing a new cycle
Attention now inevitably turns to the 2026 Formula 1 season, which will mark the beginning of a new technical and regulatory cycle. For Red Bull, this represents a crucial challenge: the definitive farewell to Honda and the debut of an in-house power unit developed in partnership with Ford introduce a significant element of uncertainty, particularly at a time when reliability and competitiveness will be decisive.
Once again, much will depend on Max Verstappen. The 2025 season showed that the Dutch driver is capable of maintaining an exceptionally high level of performance even without the benchmark car, adapting quickly to less stable machinery and complex technical scenarios. Whether Red Bull can provide him with a competitive package from the outset remains to be seen, but one conclusion is clear: if the 2026 project proves even moderately competitive, Verstappen will continue to stand as one of the fixed reference points of the entire Formula 1 paddock.
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