Reigning Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen has delivered a stunning verdict on his title aspirations for 2025, declaring himself merely a “participant” rather than a “contender.”
This surprising admission comes as the Red Bull driver prepares to start the Bahrain Grand Prix from a lowly P7 on the grid, trailing current championship leader Lando Norris (McLaren) by a single point.
Just a week after a dominant pole-to-victory performance in Japan, which ignited hopes of a renewed challenge to McLaren and a potential fifth consecutive drivers’ crown for Verstappen, Red Bull’s fortunes took a sharp downturn in Bahrain qualifying. Verstappen could only manage seventh, with teammate Yuki Tsunoda lining up further back in P10.
While McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, starting from pole in Bahrain and just 13 points behind Norris, could propel himself firmly into title contention, the fact that Norris starts only one position ahead of Verstappen might typically be seen as a source of comfort for the reigning champion. However, Verstappen’s perspective is starkly different.
“McLaren are not my rivals right now,” Verstappen stated unequivocally, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
When directly asked if he considers himself an F1 2025 title contender, Verstappen firmly replied: “No, I don’t.”
Verstappen’s qualifying deficit to pole-sitter Piastri was just under six-tenths of a second, a margin that aligns with the pre-season warnings he reportedly issued to Red Bull. He argues that his victory in the Japanese GP was a result of McLaren potentially faltering, rather than a genuine indication of Red Bull being in the championship fight on equal footing.
“If you look at the gap to McLaren, I’m not surprised,” Verstappen explained. “I already told the team during the winter test here that the gap is half a second, and that proves to be the case, so I was right in that respect.”
Elaborating on his struggles in Bahrain qualifying, Verstappen pinpointed several issues.
“Yeah, just the whole weekend struggling a bit with that, brakes, feeling, and stopping power, and, besides that, also just, yeah, very, very poor grip,” he told media outlets, including PlanetF1.com. “We tried a lot on the setup, and basically all of it didn’t work. It didn’t give us a clear direction in which to work. So, yeah, just overall, a difficult weekend.”
Looking ahead to the Bahrain Grand Prix race, Verstappen’s expectations remain tempered. “I hope that I can stay a bit with the Mercedes and Ferraris; naturally, I think the McLarens will pull away,” he conceded. “But yeah, we’ll try our best and see what happens.”