Max Verstappen’s manager delivers blunt ‘champion much earlier’ Norris comment
Lando Norris should have won the title earlier, says Max Verstappen's manager
Max Verstappen delivered a “work of art” F1 2025 campaign, according to his manager Raymond Vermeulen, who posed the question of whether it even topped Verstappen’s all-conquering 2023 season.
Verstappen almost made it five Drivers’ titles in a row with his remarkable F1 2025 comeback effort, but ultimately, fell narrowly short to Lando Norris. Vermeulen argues that Norris “should have become champion much earlier” at the wheel of the McLaren MCL39.
Norris title timeline under Max Verstappen manager scrutiny
In an interview for Formule 1 Magazine, Verstappen’s long-time manager Vermeulen, alongside his praise for the Dutchman, also turned the tables, questioning McLaren’s and Norris’s execution of F1 2025.
McLaren comfortably retained the Constructors’ Championship, though Verstappen ensured that the Drivers’ title battle was not an all-McLaren affair, as had been expected, taking six grand prix wins after the summer break and never failing to reach the podium.
McLaren remained committed to providing an equal playing field for Norris and Oscar Piastri to battle for the title, even with Verstappen closing in. It was an approach which ultimately paid off.
“This season has been a work of art by Max,” said Vermeulen.
“He managed to turn the year around. At the beginning, we had a few very bad weekends with the Red Bull Racing team, and those broke us at the end.
“But if you turn it around, McLaren made a lot more mistakes.
“With that car, Norris should have become champion much earlier, of course.”
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Verstappen has expressed surprise over the new fans which he gained for how he competed in the 2025 season.
“We’ve noticed that Max is now getting the international recognition he deserves,” Vermeulen commented. “His performances this season have really captured the imagination.
“We have been saying for some time that he is an exceptional talent on four wheels, but what he has shown this season, given the circumstances, is phenomenal, and it’s great that everyone can now see that.
“Was this season better than 2023, when he won 19 of 22 races? He has had to come a long way this year.”
Vermeulen’s claim that Norris should have wrapped-up the title earlier is comparable to Verstappen’s comments as the three-way scrap between he, Norris and Piastri approached its climax.
“If we would have been in the position of how dominant of a car, well, [McLaren] had, let’s say it like that, [the] championship would have been over a long time ago,” Verstappen claimed to Formula 1.com.
He suggested, ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, that “other people’s failures” were why he was still a title contender.
In response, Noris had said that “Max generally has a good clue about a lot of things. But, there’s also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue about.”
He added: “But this is also Red Bull’s way of going about things is this kind of aggressive nature and, yeah, just talking nonsense a lot of the time.”
Norris would secure the podium he needed in Abu Dhabi to win the title by two points from Verstappen, that Norris’ first World Championship.
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