{"id":324307,"date":"2025-12-04T06:45:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T06:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/324307\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T06:45:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T06:45:18","slug":"indycar-champion-backs-verstappens-mclaren-claim-ahead-of-abu-dhabi-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/324307\/","title":{"rendered":"IndyCar champion backs Verstappen\u2019s McLaren claim ahead of Abu Dhabi finale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alex Palou has claimed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-drivers\/max-verstappen\" title=\"Max Verstappen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Max Verstappen<\/a> would have secured the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/formula-1\" title=\"Formula 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> Drivers\u2019 Championship two months earlier had he been driving the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-teams\/mclaren\" title=\"McLaren\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">McLaren<\/a> MCL39 this season.\u201cHe would have won weeks ago, two months ago.\u201d- Alex PalouSpeaking ahead of the final race of the 2025 Formula 1 season to Mundo Deportivo, the four-time IndyCar champion expressed confidence in Verstappen&#8217;s ability. While stating his belief that he also could have fought for victories in a McLaren, Palou stressed that only the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-teams\/red-bull-racing\" title=\"Red Bull Racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Red Bull Racing<\/a> driver could have wrapped up the title months earlier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbsolutely, yes, yes. He would have won weeks ago, two months ago. Do I think I would have won? I&#8217;m telling you, yes, I could have fought, but I wouldn&#8217;t have won two months earlier. But Max is the only one who would have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The comments from the Chip Ganassi Racing driver come days after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/news\/verstappen-a-champion-in-a-mclaren-stella-has-his-own-take\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Verstappen himself stated he would have won the Drivers\u2019 Championship in a McLaren<\/a>.<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/max-verstappen-blunder-verwijderd-wereldtitel.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"max-verstappen-qatar-red-bull-jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Max Verstappen celebrates winning the Qatar Grand Prix &#8211; Photo: Race Pictures<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead, the 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1\" title=\"F1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">F1<\/a> Drivers\u2019 title is currently a three-way tie heading into the season finale in Abu Dhabi. Verstappen, along with McLaren duo <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-drivers\/lando-norris\" title=\"Lando Norris\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lando Norris<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-drivers\/oscar-piastri\" title=\"Oscar Piastri\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oscar Piastri<\/a>, are all in contention for the championship. Norris leads the trio by 12 points, with Verstappen four points clear of Piastri.F1\u2019s worrying record for Norris ahead of Abu DhabiWhile Norris remains in prime position to claim the 2025 Drivers\u2019 title at the Yas Marina Circuit, the 26-year-old faces<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/features\/the-chilling-f1-pattern-that-spells-worry-for-norris-in-abu-dhabi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> a chilling historical trend that has often haunted championship leaders <\/a>when at least three drivers remain in contention heading into the final race of the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Since the 1981 season, the driver leading a three-way title fight going into the decider has gone on to lose the championship. The most recent example came in 2010, when Fernando Alonso missed out on the crown to Red Bull Racing\u2019s Sebastian Vettel.<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy GPblog\u2019s paddock update here!<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned with all of the action as the title decider in Abu Dhabi takes centre stage. Follow GPblog\u2019s paddock update never to miss a moment.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe and follow our channels on Spotify and YouTube to never miss a scoop as the action from the Yas Marina circuit unravels.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the latest edition of our paddock update here \ud83d\udc47<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Palou has claimed that Max Verstappen would have secured the Formula 1 Drivers\u2019 Championship two months earlier&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,28673,576,577,591,1885,590,592,2190,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-324307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-f1-news","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-lando-norris","15":"tag-max-verstappen","16":"tag-mclaren","17":"tag-oscar-piastri","18":"tag-red-bull-racing","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324307","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=324307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}