Winning the 2025 Formula 1 title “doesn’t really matter” to Max Verstappen, ahead of a three-way title decider in Abu Dhabi.
The Red Bull driver took his seventh grand prix victory of the season in Qatar thanks to an impeccable drive and a decisive strategy call. That success meant he reduced his deficit to the championship lead from 104 points three months ago to 12 points ahead of the final round.
If Verstappen were to beat Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to the title, he would match Juan Manuel Fangio’s world championship tally and would be only the second driver to achieve five consecutive titles after Michael Schumacher.
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The 70-time grand prix winner has had his fair share of success over the years, and is therefore not overly fussed as to whether he adds to it next Sunday.
Asked about his state of mind compared to his only previous title showdown in 2021, Verstappen replied: “I’m a lot more relaxed now. I mean, I know that I’m 12 points down. I go in there with just positive energy.
“I try everything I can. But at the same time, if I don’t win it, I still know that I had an amazing season. So, it doesn’t really matter.
“It takes a lot of the pressure off. I’m just out there having a good time like I had today. I also started today with ‘we’ll see how it goes’.
“I know that when I sit in the car, I always try to maximise everything I can. And that’s what I’ll try to do in Abu Dhabi, but at the same time, I also know that we need to rely on probably some external factors to have a go at it. But a race like today shows that when you think it’s going to be boring and straightforward – it’s not. So, I’m hoping Abu Dhabi is going to be similar.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / LAT Images via Getty Images
For the first time, Verstappen has led his title challenge with a Red Bull RB21 that clearly hasn’t been the most competitive car overall.
Despite a “really tough first half of the season”, the Dutchman rated his campaign as “very strong”.
“But that’s also something that I demand of myself after basically 11 years in Formula 1,” he insisted. “And, you know, every year, I think you become a bit more all-around.
“Even in the championship years, there are always things that you look back at and you’re like, ‘I could have learned a bit more’, or ‘I could have done a bit more there’. And this can go from how you set up the car, what you did yourself in terms of execution in a race, or the way that you work together with the team.
“To still be in this fight, I think we can be really proud of it because in the middle of the season, at some point, it was almost – not like you lose motivation, but you don’t really see a way forward of actually winning again in this season. It’s almost like you have to hope that 2026 would be better.
“But we definitely made some really good steps with the car, and in some weekends, for sure, we were in a very competitive state, I would say, where we could win races. But at the same time, we’ve also won races where maybe we shouldn’t have, like today, by making the right call as a team. And then, of course, it’s still up to me to execute it in the best way possible. But that’s, at the end of the day, also a proper team effort.”
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– The Autosport.com Team