{"id":80349,"date":"2025-08-20T14:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/80349\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T14:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:36:09","slug":"max-verstappen-causing-trouble-as-herbert-scans-mclaren-implosion-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/80349\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen \u2018causing trouble\u2019 as Herbert scans McLaren \u2018implosion\u2019 threat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Johnny Herbert predicted Max Verstappen will still be in the fight at the front of the field for the rest of the season, which could have an impact on the title fight.<\/p>\n<p>While Verstappen has won two races so far in 2025, he appears unlikely to retain his World Championship crown at this stage, sitting 97 points behind Oscar Piastri with 10 races remaining.<\/p>\n<p>Herbert: Max Verstappen will \u2018have an influence\u2019 on 2025 title fight<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull\u2019s relative pace compared to McLaren has dropped off in recent races, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/driver\/max-verstappen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Verstappen<\/a> having gone four consecutive races without a podium.<\/p>\n<p>With the McLaren duo having opened up the gap at the front of the field in that time, Herbert does not believe the reigning World Champion will be a factor in this year\u2019s title battle.<\/p>\n<p>What he could do, however, is perform well enough to take points away from the two main title contenders.<\/p>\n<p>While Herbert believes an \u201cimplosion\u201d at McLaren is unlikely, Verstappen could be the driver to be the biggest influence on proceedings away from the McLaren duo.<\/p>\n<p>Oscar Piastri v Lando Norris: F1 2025 stats<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/f1-2025-qualifying-head-to-head-team-mates\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/f1-2025-race-head-to-head-team-mates\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n<p>When asked if Verstappen can be ruled out of the title fight this season, Herbert told Formula1.com: \u201cFor the championship, yes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019ll be in the mix, he\u2019ll be causing trouble for the others, and he\u2019ll have an influence \u2013 because he\u2019ll be taking points away potentially from the others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what he will enjoy as well: \u2018I\u2019m still here, I\u2019m still here\u2019. It\u2019s very unlikely\u2026 there could be an implosion at McLaren, but I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMax is just going to be in the mix and he\u2019s going to be causing them to think in a slightly different way, because they\u2019re fighting for a championship while fighting Max.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With the title fight set to be between the two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/team\/mclaren\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">McLaren<\/a> drivers for the rest of the season, three-time grand prix winner Herbert praised how both drivers have gone about their season.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to a deciding factor between Norris and Piastri, however, the Briton believes the mental side of the sport will come to the fore.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s going to be down to the mentality of both of them,\u201d Herbert said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut they\u2019re both youngish and they\u2019re only going to get better as time goes by, like Max has done, like Lewis did, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher\u2026 they have that wonderful ability to find a way of moving up every time the performance of the car gets better.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith all the little ups and downs they\u2019ve had, they\u2019re still very, very close overall. It\u2019ll only be one over the other come the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read next:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/whats-better-than-one-leclerc-in-a-ferrari\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">What\u2019s better than one Leclerc in a Ferrari?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnny Herbert predicted Max Verstappen will still be in the fight at the front of the field for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,372,6537,348,1693,3006,1469,50,1470,3803,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-80349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-lando-norris","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mclaren","tag-news","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-red-bull","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}