Max Verstappen on losing 2025 F1 title by 2 points: “It’s all or nothing – like being pregnant”. Max Verstappen reflects on his narrow 2025 F1 title loss to Lando Norris.

Verstappen philosopher: “Losing by 2 points? The difference doesn’t matter, you either win or lose. It’s like being pregnant”

The Dutch driver used a striking metaphor to explain his feelings after losing the 2025 Formula 1 championship by just two points.

Minimal gap

The two-point margin that separated Lando Norris and Max Verstappen at the end of the season—after 24 Grand Prix and six Sprint races—was, proportionally, the smallest gap ever between first and second place in F1 history. Even the famous half-point that separated Niki Lauda and Alain Prost in 1984, when calculated as a percentage of the total points available that season, was smaller than the gap between McLaren’s Lando Norris and reigning champion Max Verstappen in 2025.

Yet Max Verstappen never seemed emotionally affected by losing the championship by such a narrow margin after staging an incredible comeback from a 104-point deficit following the Dutch Grand Prix. In a recent interview with Dutch broadcaster Viaplay, Max Verstappen explained that the exact size of the points gap was never a matter of particular concern for him.

Either you’re pregnant, or you’re not

“I think we can be happy that we got to fight for the championship,” the Red Bull driver commented. “First of all, we were never actually leading the standings. And we also benefited from a lot of things along the way. In the end, we won that race in Las Vegas, and McLaren was also disqualified, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to fight for the title in the final race. We benefited from all of this, and the fact that the final gap was only two points, I don’t think it matters. Whether it’s one point or twenty points, it doesn’t change the situation. You either win or you don’t. It’s like being pregnant. Either you are, or you aren’t—you can’t be half pregnant.”

An undeniably effective summary of the all-or-nothing mentality in Formula 1.

Max Verstappen’s pragmatic philosophy underscores his resilience after a thrilling 2025 title battle, reminding F1 fans that in championship terms, close defeats hurt just as much as big ones – it’s binary: champion or not.