Max Verstappen is just one point away from the lead in the Drivers’ Championship after three races in the 2025 Formula 1 season. And that’s no small feat, considering the performance advantage shown by the McLaren MCL39s since pre-season testing in Sakhir, Bahrain.
The win claimed by the four-time world champion in Suzuka last weekend has reinvigorated him. In this early part of the season, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri certainly have a strong advantage thanks to the strength of the MCL39s, but Verstappen wants to seize every opportunity to begin applying pressure to his rivals, even with 21 Grands Prix still to go this season.
“When I arrived here, I didn’t expect to win at all. Not even after the first two practice sessions on Friday,” Max told Viaplay after the race. “Starting from pole was the most important thing this weekend. I think McLaren was faster than us, but they never managed to get into the DRS zone to try and overtake.”
“I’m very happy with what I’m doing. I don’t even want to think about what it would be like if I were driving a McLaren. In that case, you wouldn’t have even seen me.”
After praising himself in his usual candid yet honest manner, Max Verstappen acknowledged the great work done by Red Bull, particularly by Gianpiero Lambiase, his race engineer, and Hugh Bird, performance engineer for the car.
“In the end, it’s always about a team that works well together. With Gianpiero Lambiase and Hugh Bird, another performance engineer. I worked with him until the end of 2020 and it went very well.”
“In the end we made the right choices before qualifying. Everything works very well between me and Gianpiero Lambiase. And those things are important.”
Max Verstappen, however, knows that repeating the victory achieved in Suzuka may be more difficult next weekend, when the Bahrain Grand Prix takes place at the Sakhir circuit “Suzuka was a great result, but overtaking was difficult and qualifying was very important. This doesn’t mean everything has now turned in our favour or that we’ll win all the races. But we can certainly be satisfied with what we’ve done.”
Leave a Reply