{"id":185637,"date":"2025-10-02T18:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T18:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/185637\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T18:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T18:22:07","slug":"max-verstappen-assesses-chances-of-overturning-big-gap-to-mclaren-drivers-in-2025-title-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/185637\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen assesses chances of overturning \u2018big gap\u2019 to McLaren drivers in 2025 title race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Red Bull\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">He is now <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiYSBtdWNoLXJlZHVjZWQgNjkgcG9pbnRzIGFkcmlmdF9saW5rX2NsaWNrZWQiLCJjbGlja1RleHQiOnRydWUsInBhdGgiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5mb3JtdWxhMS5jb20vZW4vcmVzdWx0cy8yMDI1L2RyaXZlcnMiLCJwYXRoVHlwZSI6ImludGVybmFsIn0=\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/results\/2025\/drivers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a much-reduced 69 points adrift<\/a> of Piastri, and 44 down on Norris, with 199 points still available across the final seven Grand Prix weekends \u2013 three of which feature the Sprint format.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">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: \u201cIt\u2019s like any other, I just try to do my best.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cOf 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cI\u2019m relaxed, just having fun, here and outside of F1. In that sense, [it\u2019s been] a good season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Pushed on whether he feels winning the title is a possibility, he added: \u201cI\u2019m not really thinking about that, to be honest. It\u2019s a big gap, but for me I just see it race by race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cI try to do the best I can, and I know that if the car is capable of winning, we will win the race \u2013 it\u2019s as simple as that. At the same time, if we\u2019re not able to win the race then that\u2019s it as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cI\u2019m not too worried or stressed about anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Verstappen also shared a few words about the extra race he won between the Azerbaijan and Singapore weekends, <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiaGF2aW5nIHRyaXVtcGhlZCBvbiBoaXMgR1QzIGRlYnV0X2xpbmtfY2xpY2tlZCIsImNsaWNrVGV4dCI6dHJ1ZSwicGF0aCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZvcm11bGExLmNvbS9lbi9sYXRlc3QvYXJ0aWNsZS92ZXJzdGFwcGVuLWhhaWxzLWFtYXppbmctZGVidXQtbnVyYnVyZ3JpbmctZ3QzLXJhY2Utd2luLWFzLWhlLWhpbnRzLWF0LldYZXlFcUxxWjM3ZGIycGNkbUNYbyIsInBhdGhUeXBlIjoiaW50ZXJuYWwifQ==\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/latest\/article\/verstappen-hails-amazing-debut-nurburgring-gt3-race-win-as-he-hints-at.WXeyEqLqZ37db2pcdmCXo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">having triumphed on his GT3 debut<\/a> at the Nurburgring Nordschleife.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cThis 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,\u201d he commented. \u201cFinally, that came together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">As for what he can take from the experience and apply to his driving more generally, Verstappen said: \u201cI\u2019ve done that already for a lot of years on the simulator, driving these kinds of cars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cThere 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\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cEverything felt super natural because I\u2019ve been doing this for many years on the sim, multi-class racing, and it is exactly the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen is refusing to get carried away with talk of a championship comeback after successive&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-185637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}