Verstappen assesses chances of overturning ‘big gap’ to McLaren drivers in 2025 title race

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is refusing to get carried away with talk of a championship comeback after successive F1 victories slashed his deficit to McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

Verstappen fell more than 100 points behind championship leader Piastri following his home Grand Prix at Zandvoort at the end of August, but back-to-back wins at Monza and Baku have significantly changed that picture.

He is now a much-reduced 69 points adrift of Piastri, and 44 down on Norris, with 199 points still available across the final seven Grand Prix weekends – three of which feature the Sprint format.

Asked for his thoughts arriving in Singapore, and how significant the event could be for the title race, with the Dutchman never winning at Marina Bay before, Verstappen replied: “It’s like any other, I just try to do my best.

“Of course, I know in the past this has not been particularly our strongest track, plus sometimes a bit unfortunate to [not] get a better result around here.

“I’m relaxed, just having fun, here and outside of F1. In that sense, [it’s been] a good season.”

Pushed on whether he feels winning the title is a possibility, he added: “I’m not really thinking about that, to be honest. It’s a big gap, but for me I just see it race by race.

“I try to do the best I can, and I know that if the car is capable of winning, we will win the race – it’s as simple as that. At the same time, if we’re not able to win the race then that’s it as well.

“I’m not too worried or stressed about anything.”

Verstappen also shared a few words about the extra race he won between the Azerbaijan and Singapore weekends, having triumphed on his GT3 debut at the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

“This was already my plan, and [there are] things that I wanted to do outside of F1, but it takes times to prepare these kind of things,” he commented. “Finally, that came together.”

As for what he can take from the experience and apply to his driving more generally, Verstappen said: “I’ve done that already for a lot of years on the simulator, driving these kinds of cars.

“There is also learning the track better in the wet, damp, knowing every kerb, every bump even more from new tyres to old tyres, high fuel, low fuel, dealing with traffic…

“Everything felt super natural because I’ve been doing this for many years on the sim, multi-class racing, and it is exactly the same.

“I had a lot of fun. Also with my team mate, Chris [Lulham], for him to do that race, I think we had a good time together.”