{"id":175197,"date":"2025-09-28T11:12:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T11:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/175197\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T11:12:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T11:12:13","slug":"are-max-verstappen-and-red-bull-really-back-in-the-f1-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/175197\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Max Verstappen and Red Bull really back in the F1 title fight?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> predicted in Hungary that he wouldn\u2019t win another Formula 1 race this season, but in the three grands prix after his proclamation, he has won two and whispers of a title fight have returned.<\/p>\n

Following convincing victories in Monza and Baku, one of the most asked questions now is \u2013 can Verstappen actually challenge McLaren<\/a> for the 2025 drivers\u2019 title?<\/p>\n

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The PACETEQ graph at the bottom of this article shows that Verstappen has been the fastest driver, race pace-wise, twice in recent weeks \u2013 something that had only happened at Suzuka, Imola and Jeddah before, although Verstappen failed to win in Saudi Arabia due to a penalty.<\/p>\n

The recent resurgence is attributed by team members to several factors. First, Red Bull\u2019s approach has changed somewhat, with less blind reliance on data and more emphasis on driver feedback. Second, Verstappen says knowledge about the RB21 can now be used more effectively to find the car\u2019s ideal set-up window \u2013 however small it may be.<\/p>\n

A third factor which should not be underestimated is the new floor. At Monza, Red Bull introduced an upgrade which, according to Helmut Marko, not only delivered pure performance but also improved the car\u2019s balance and slightly expanded its operating window.<\/p>\n

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After the win in Monza, the key question was to what extent that performance was track-specific, a topic Laurent Mekies addressed again after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing\"Max<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we probably feel today that some of the good stuff we have seen in Monza, we found here again,\u201d Mekies said. \u201cIn Baku, there are only slow-speed corners, and it’s very low downforce. That combination worked very well for us. It\u2019s a different equation compared to Monza, so that’s the good news for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The graph below shows the average race pace per lap in Baku and confirms Verstappen had a comfortable advantage. The gap to George Russell<\/a> was more than three tenths per lap, though it should be noted that not all figures are fully representative. Based on Friday\u2019s data, McLaren and Ferrari<\/a> should be a bit faster than this graph suggests. Both teams endured disappointing qualifying sessions and spent most of the race stuck in dirty air, unable to show their true pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompared to George Russell, I think it’s relatively possible to read,\u201d Mekies confirmed. \u201cI think the gap was probably a couple of tenths [per lap], but nothing more than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cMcLaren is much more difficult to judge, because they were not finding any free air. We have seen them extremely fast at some points on Friday morning, Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. We’ll probably never know what their real pace is in the race, but there\u2019s certainly no room to relax for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Heat and high downforce on a street circuit \u2013 the Singapore challenge<\/p>\n

The \u201cno room to relax\u201d part of Mekies\u2019 comments is mostly true, because the real test is coming next weekend: the Singapore GP. On paper, it combines several elements that don\u2019t suit Red Bull \u2013 a bumpy street track and a layout requiring a high-downforce set-up.<\/p>\n

Marko even added with a smile: \u201cIt’s not only high downforce, it’s also bloody hot there, which our car doesn’t seem to like so much. So it will be the real benchmark to see where we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Heat is indeed an important factor, since Red Bull\u2019s rear tyres tend to overheat relatively quickly, whereas McLaren excels in that area. In Monza and Baku this wasn\u2019t an issue due to lower degradation, but in Singapore it will be back on the surface.<\/p>\n

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Max Verstappen wins on NLS GT3 debut <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou go to Singapore, you move a bit your equations,\u201d Mekies also acknowledged. \u201cYou keep the slow-speed corners, but you go to maximum downforce. We have been struggling quite a lot in Budapest, and even before Budapest. Also, a much hotter track, and we know how sensitive we are to this aspect, but not only us, almost the whole field.\u201d<\/p>\n

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No repeat of Budapest?<\/p>\n

Since Mekies mentioned Budapest, it\u2019s worth looking at the data below \u2013 particularly the blue Red Bull line. The graph shows that in Hungary, Red Bull lost more than a second per lap (1.09s) to McLaren on a relatively short circuit. It was an enormous gap, the biggest deficit in pure race pace apart from Austria and Great Britain – but Austria wasn\u2019t representative, since the figures are based on Yuki Tsunoda<\/a>, with Verstappen taken out of the race early by Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Budapest was one of the low points of Red Bull\u2019s season, and the Hungaroring was the last high-downforce track before Singapore. It underlines how big the challenge is for Red Bull next week, and why it would be premature to draw conclusions about a title fight after two wins on low-downforce circuits. Singapore will be the real test in every respect, especially with Budapest\u2019s figures in mind.<\/p>\n

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Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20\"Max<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20<\/p>\n

It makes the upcoming Grand Prix a question mark, though Mekies is confident the disastrous scenario of Budapest will not repeat itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it’s probably fair to say that we have unlocked a bit of performance out of the car after Budapest, regardless of our issues there,\u201d the Frenchman said. \u201cI don’t think that Singapore will be a repeat of Budapest, so I\u2019m more confident than that. Is it going to be enough to fight for the win? Honestly, it\u2019s impossible to say. But it won’t be like Budapest.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Marko had already said that Red Bull knew what had gone wrong in Hungary, but the team couldn\u2019t make any tweaks under parc ferme conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take the challenge of Singapore, it’s a track that’s been challenging for the team many, many years,\u201d Mekies said, pointing out that Verstappen has never won there. \u201cIn the context of what we are trying to see, it’s very important to see what suddenly doesn’t work anymore there, and what still does.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Singapore GP will not only be an interesting test for the outside world to judge whether Verstappen can still play a role in this year\u2019s title fight \u2013 it will also be a crucial benchmark for Red Bull itself, a weekend that should normally provide answers.<\/p>\n

Last year, Lando Norris<\/a> dominated under the floodlights, though Verstappen still finished second, 20 seconds behind the Briton.<\/p>\n

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen predicted in Hungary that he wouldn\u2019t win another Formula 1 race this season, but in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[10007,27328,49,48,578,576,577,6114,11753,1885,590,3842,1882,2190,82],"class_list":["post-175197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-baku","tag-budapest","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-helmut-marko","tag-laurent-mekies","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mclaren","tag-monza","tag-red-bull","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}