{"id":231157,"date":"2025-10-22T05:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T05:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/231157\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T05:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T05:44:10","slug":"f1-today-stella-prepares-mclaren-for-verstappens-charge-hulkenberg-lauds-the-dutchman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/231157\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 Today | Stella prepares McLaren for Verstappen’s charge, Hulkenberg lauds the Dutchman"},"content":{"rendered":"

so we’ve reached the end of yet another rivetting F1 news<\/a> day. As always let’s have a look at today’s top two stories of 21 October, 2025 in F1<\/a> Today.Stella rallies McLaren as Verstappen charges for the titleAndrea Stella<\/a> has doubled down on his belief that McLaren<\/a> remains in control of the championship fight despite Max Verstappen<\/a>\u2019s resurgence.<\/p>\n

The McLaren boss took positives from Lando Norris\u2019 performance in Austin, where the Briton showed enough pace to challenge for victory if not for being stuck behind Charles Leclerc for most of the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout having to fight with Charles, I think Lando had the pace to win the race today,\u201d Stella told GPblog.<\/p>\n

\"verstappen-celebrates-cota-win\"\/<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen celebrates U.S GP win. Photo: RacePictures.<\/p>\n

Despite Red Bull closing the gap, with Norris now just 26 points clear of Verstappen and Oscar Piastri\u2019s lead shrinking by 64 over the last four rounds, Stella insists McLaren\u2019s performance was \u201creassuring\u201d and proof that the car can match Verstappen on pure pace.<\/p>\n

The Italian, however, made it clear that any title outcome rests firmly on McLaren\u2019s execution. \u201cWhen Max has the material to win, he becomes a serious candidate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the outcome of this season is in our hands.\u201d Stella believes the team\u2019s pace in recent rounds has been good enough to secure stronger results and subtly warned that the responsibility now lies with the drivers.<\/p>\n

Nico Hulkenberg<\/a> has hailed Max Verstappen as \u201cthe boss ruling everyone at the moment\u201d following the Dutchman\u2019s dominant display at the United States Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Viaplay, the Haas driver couldn\u2019t hide his admiration for Verstappen\u2019s form, describing his resurgence as \u201csimply incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hulkenberg said: \u201cIt\u2019s just incredible what he does, together with Red Bull. He\u2019s showing his class, he\u2019s showing that he\u2019s a four-time world champion, that he\u2019s the boss ruling everyone at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"verstappen-rb21\"\/<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen sitting in the RB21 – Photo: Red Bull Content Pool<\/p>\n

Verstappen once again stamped his authority at COTA, taking pole position and sweeping both the Sprint and the Grand Prix, cutting his deficit in the standings to 40 points with five races remaining.<\/p>\n

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff echoed the praise<\/a>, telling GPblog that Verstappen\u2019s current level is \u201cincredible\u201d and that both driver and team have \u201cturned a corner\u201d since the summer break.<\/p>\n

Wolff admitted it\u2019s difficult to see anyone matching the Red Bull driver\u2019s form right now.<\/p>\n

F1 analyst Peter Windsor also crowned Verstappen \u201cdriver of the weekend\u201d in Austin.<\/a>GPblog’s latest F1 Paddock Update<\/p>\n

Want to stay up-to-date with what happens in the F1 paddock? Then GPblog’s F1 Paddock Update video is the perfect way to do it. Subscribe to GPblog’s YouTube channel and turn on notifications to never miss the latest episodes.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"so we’ve reached the end of yet another rivetting F1 news day. As always let’s have a look…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-231157","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231157","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=231157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}