Max Verstappen hoping for Red Bull upgrades
Three-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen is doing everything he can to stay in contention for the 2025 championship title, even though the zero points scored after the collision with Kimi Antonelli on the opening lap of the Austrian Grand Prix may have delivered a significant blow to his title hopes.
To extend his streak of consecutive world titles, the Dutch driver needs a series of highly favorable circumstances to align—starting with a major step forward in the competitiveness of the Red Bull Racing RB21.
The team based in Milton Keynes is continuing to bring aerodynamic and mechanical updates to its 2025 challenger, aiming to provide Verstappen with the necessary tools to fight against the increasingly strong McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Whether the team can close the performance gap significantly will likely determine Verstappen’s chances of remaining in the title fight. Currently trailing the championship leader by 61 points, Max Verstappen has admitted that such a deficit cannot be recovered unless Red Bull delivers major performance gains.
Max Verstappen’s comments from Silverstone
“We are trying to do everything we can to be as competitive as possible,” said Max Verstappen during the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone. “Will we reach McLaren’s level? Maybe not, but that’s how Formula 1 goes. Some years you dominate and can win a lot, other years things don’t go your way and you don’t win at all. As far as we’re concerned, some tracks might suit us a little better, but with the performance gap we currently have, I don’t think we’ll be able to win a race on pure pace.”
The Dutchman acknowledged the challenges of staying competitive in such a complex sport: “If everyone knew what they needed to do, then everyone would be winning races—or at least fighting for wins. But in Formula 1, unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. Clearly, we’re not where we want to be, but we are still fighting for podium finishes and trying to extract more performance from the car.”
Verstappen also pointed to technical issues from the past season that have had a knock-on effect on this year’s development: “Last year, we had some balance problems with the car, and we first had to understand what was going on. That definitely impacted our development path for the 2025 car, and that’s something we’re still paying the price for now,” he added.
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