{"id":98529,"date":"2025-08-28T10:56:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T10:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/98529\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T10:56:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T10:56:12","slug":"what-sets-mclaren-apart-in-f1-2025-explained-by-verstappen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/98529\/","title":{"rendered":"What sets McLaren apart in F1 2025, explained by Verstappen"},"content":{"rendered":"

With 10 grands prix still to go, McLaren<\/a> is all but certain to walk away with both Formula 1 world titles in 2025.<\/p>\n

The Woking-based team enjoys a commanding lead in the constructors\u2019 standings, while Max Verstappen<\/a> \u2013 the first non-McLaren driver in the drivers\u2019 championship \u2013 trails Oscar Piastri<\/a> by 97 points. This means McLaren<\/a> is on track to secure its first drivers\u2019 title since 2008, with Piastri and Lando Norris<\/a> left to fight it out between themselves.<\/p>\n

For Verstappen, the most realistic scenario is the \u2018best of the rest\u2019 position \u2013 though he admitted in Hungary that even winning a single race in the remainder of the season is a tall order.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

That is, logically, because McLaren has set the benchmark with the MCL39, with Verstappen identifying a few aspects that stand out in particular.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, the McLaren car is definitely better on its tyres,\u201d the Dutchman said. \u201cIt keeps the tyres alive a lot nicer than all other cars on the grid. You can clearly see that in the wet, especially on the intermediates. If you have good tyre management, it comes out even more on that tyre because it’s more fragile. It overheats even faster, and they definitely have that very well under control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Oscar <\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

This is exactly why Verstappen no longer sees rainy races as an obvious advantage this season. In a fully wet race \u2013 where it comes down more to the driver than the actual machinery \u2013 he could still have an edge, but in mixed conditions McLaren\u2019s tyre advantage, according to Verstappen, only becomes more apparent.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, I think their medium-speed performance is incredible compared to, I would say, everyone else on the grid,\u201d he added. \u201cThe rotation they have on the front axle without losing the rear is something that is also quite incredible to see. That’s something that we are trying to achieve as well, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Verstappen knows that this is virtually unattainable this year. Although Red Bull, according to Helmut Marko, will still bring a few upgrades to Zandvoort, the focus in all factories \u2013 including Red Bull\u2019s \u2013 has long since shifted to 2026’s new technical regulations.<\/p>\n

Why Stella agrees with Verstappen<\/p>\n

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella agreed with Verstappen\u2019s assessment of the MCL39: \u201cThat’s an easy answer because it can be answered by just looking at the GPS data. When you look at the speed comparison with some other teams, the data says that McLaren can generate the highest mid-corner speed in medium-speed corners. So, I think the assessment of Max is correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Stella still doesn\u2019t believe that McLaren\u2019s MCL39 is the ultimate all-rounder in F1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have our weak points,\u201d the Italian insisted. \u201cIf you look at a very high-speed corner like Copse, for instance, or Pouhon, we are not the fastest car. Likewise, probably in the very low-speed [corners], we are not the fastest car. But the majority of corners in the championship happen to be medium-speed corners, and certainly in that range, our car is, data in hand, the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With 10 grands prix still to go, McLaren is all but certain to walk away with both Formula…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[39530,39529,48327,1687,372,6537,3006,1469,371,101,56,54,55,48326],"class_list":["post-98529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-circuit-zandvoort","tag-dutch-gp","tag-explained-by-verstappen","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mclaren","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-what-sets-mclaren-apart-in-f1-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98529","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=98529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}