{"id":264309,"date":"2025-11-05T23:09:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T23:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/264309\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T23:09:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T23:09:17","slug":"mercedes-boost-to-aid-verstappens-fight-against-mclaren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/264309\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Mercedes boost to aid Verstappen\u2019s fight against McLaren’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen\u2019s F1<\/a> 2025 title bid could be cemented by Mercedes in Las Vegas, particularly if the reigning champion wins in Brazil, F1 analyst Jolyon Palmer argues. \u201cVegas is going to be the big opportunity where you’ve got Mercedes, who will be quick. They’re always quick in Vegas.”- Jolyon Palmer.<\/p>\n

Verstappen has so far chased the McLaren drivers Lando Norris\u2019 and Oscar Piastri\u2019s gap in the championship to within striking range, sitting just 36 points shy off the British driver\u2019s lead in the Standings.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Palmer argued Verstappen\u2019s fight was still very much in his grasp. Despite the \u201cbig hit\u201d the Dutch driver took in Mexico, Brazil stands as Verstappen\u2019s opportunity to further fuel his chances. The F1TV analyst said: \u201cI think it’s still just about in his hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to figure this out. Mexico was a hit because Lando’s points gap went up, even if the gap to Oscar went down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he wins in Brazil, I think it will be in the balance. If he can win there, the gap will be less than 30.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"verstappen-rb-21-wave\"\/<\/p>\n

Photo: Race Pictures<\/p>\n

With Las Vegas coming up next after the race in Interlagos, Palmer opines Mercedes then could play a big role in the title fight, should McLaren suffer the dip in performance they experienced in last year\u2019s edition of the race in Nevada.<\/p>\n

\u201cVegas is going to be the big opportunity where you’ve got Mercedes, who will be quick. They’re always quick in Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cFerrari is a wild card. McLaren could easily end up being sixth and seventh. That’ll be the opportunity for Max to get 15 points out of the McLarens in Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"george-russell-mercedes-f1-mexicogp-1\"\/<\/p>\n

Geroge Russell won last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. Photo: RacePictures.<\/p>\n

Palmer then believes that if Verstappen is able to shrink the McLaren drivers\u2019 lead substantially, then the pressure will be on his rivals, and with the \u201cstrange\u201d outcomes the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi has often yielded, compounded with McLaren\u2019s fair racing philosophy, the chance could come for Verstappen to actually pull of the feat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s in his hands to get it down to the wire,\u201d Palmer added. \u201cIf you’re Max now with four races to go, you’ve got to just think, ‘let’s get the gap as close as it can be for Abu Dhabi’, and then the pressure is on McLaren.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve seen so many strange things in season finales where, especially a team like McLaren, if they’ve got two drivers in the fight by then, start to jeopardise themselves by trying to do all this fairness talk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s the chance for Max to do something special from a little bit further back. So probably it’s in his hands to get close. Let’s say that, and then anything can happen at the end,\u201d Palmer concluded.<\/p>\n

Russell never doubted Mercedes deal would comeGeorge Russell has said he never doubted he would extend his Mercedes contract, putting the blame of all the noise that surrounded the delay on media speculation, which contrasted substantially with the reality of the ongoing negotiations. Read Russell’s full statements here.<\/a><\/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":"Max Verstappen\u2019s F1 2025 title bid could be cemented by Mercedes in Las Vegas, particularly if the reigning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-264309","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\/264309","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=264309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}