{"id":222290,"date":"2025-10-18T13:25:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T13:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/222290\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T13:25:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T13:25:06","slug":"f1-champion-max-verstappen-stirs-the-pot-at-mclaren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/222290\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 champion Max Verstappen stirs the pot at McLaren"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> couldn\u2019t resist stirring the pot during a media appearance in Austin where he was asked about F1 rivals McLaren<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\nThe Woking-based outfit wrapped up the constructors\u2019 championship<\/a> last time out at the Singapore Grand Prix, with the focus now on Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri as they battle it out for the drivers’ title in the remaining six rounds. <\/p>\n

\nMcLaren\u2019s intra-team championship fight has been punctuated by several instances of ‘papaya rules’ throughout the year, but in Singapore the strength of this understanding was tested. <\/p>\n

\nWhere Piastri has been a pliant team-mate in 2025, famously giving up second to Norris in Monza after the Brit\u2019s slow pit stop, an aggressive move from Norris on the opening lap of the Singapore GP<\/a> left the Aussie frustrated. <\/p>\n

\n“If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team-mate, then that’s a pretty **** job of avoiding,” Piastri said to race engineer Tom Stallard<\/a> via his team radio during the race. <\/p>\n

\nWhen the team refused to give the place back, Piastri became further incensed with many predicting further drama at this weekend’s US GP. <\/p>\n

\nVerstappen, who is 63 points behind Piastri in the drivers\u2019 standings, was asked about the McLaren rivalry during Thursday\u2019s press conference<\/a> at COTA, to which he provided a characteristically sarcastic response. <\/p>\n

Verstappen addresses McLaren favouritism claims<\/p>\n

\nWhen asked if McLaren are favouring Norris in the title battle, claims that have been made by the likes of Bernie Ecclestone<\/a>, Verstappen decided to stir the pot. <\/p>\n

\n\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d he laughed, with a cheeky side glance to Lewis Hamilton<\/a> who was sat beside him during the media session. <\/p>\n

\nThe Dutchman then added more seriously: \u201cDoes it help me? I don\u2019t know, I don\u2019t care because it has nothing to do with me what they decide within the team and how they operate as a team. <\/p>\n

\n“They do whatever they think is right and they are doing a very good job of it, being this quick and what they have done over the last few years.\u201d <\/p>\n

\nAlthough it is an outside chance, Verstappen is still in contention for the drivers\u2019 title<\/a>, but he has maintained he is focused on Red Bull\u2019s performance rather than McLaren\u2019s internal politics. <\/p>\n

\n\u201cFor me, what is important is that when we get to the racetrack we just maximise our potential and as long as we can do that, it’s in our control. Of course, if you look at the whole season we didn\u2019t have a great start to it. <\/p>\n

\n\u201cBut just approach every race weekend trying to maximise everything we can. Try to win races and that\u2019s the only thing we can do until the end.\u201d <\/p>\n

\nF1 HEADLINES: Charles Leclerc in FIA summons as Ferrari face United States GP nightmare<\/a> <\/p>\n

\nREAD MORE: Verstappen to replace Hamilton with new arch F1 rival<\/a> <\/p>\n

\nF1 SPRINT QUALIFYING RESULTS: McLaren BEATEN as Max Verstappen launches comeback at United States Grand Prix<\/a> <\/p>\n

\nREAD MORE: Christian Horner tipped to launch Aston Martin F1 takeover<\/a><\/p>\n

Related\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen couldn\u2019t resist stirring the pot during a media appearance in Austin where he was asked about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,3631,1885,590,44,11579,82,106694],"class_list":["post-222290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-gpfans","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mclaren","tag-news","tag-sheona-mountford","tag-sports","tag-united-states-grand-prix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222290","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=222290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}