Why Max Verstappen’s F1 2025 comeback is ‘one for the history books’
Laurent Mekies believes F1 witnessed an even more 'extraordinary' Max Verstappen in 2025.
Max Verstappen’s narrow title defeat came behind the wheel of an inconsistent Red Bull, but was 2025 his greatest driving performance yet?
The four-time F1 World Champion lost out by just two points to McLaren’s Lando Norris, having been over 100 points from the championship lead as recently as the Dutch Grand Prix.
Laurent Mekies: F1 2025 unearthed an ‘even more extraordinary’ Max Verstappen
After the 15th round of the championship, at Zandvoort, Verstappen was third in the rankings and 104 points behind title favourite Oscar Piastri.
But the following nine weekends transformed the complexion of the season, with Piastri struggling for performance against a resurgent Verstappen and Red Bull, while Norris raised his game to catch and overtake Piastri to establish himself as the lead McLaren driver heading into the closing stages.
Verstappen controlled the season finale in Abu Dhabi, but with Norris holding a 12-point lead heading into the showdown, the Dutchman fell two points short.
It was a remarkable turnaround, with Verstappen and Red Bull unlocking the consistency of the RB21 after the first half of the season hinted at inherent performance in the car, with wins at Imola and Suzuka.
With six wins from the last nine races, it was a huge momentum shift after just two victories in the first 15.
According to team boss Laurent Mekies, who took over from Christian Horner in the role during the summer, he witnessed something special from Verstappen, but said it’s in the eye of the observer as to whether F1 2025 was, in fact, the Red Bull driver’s best season performance.
“It’s you guys [the media] that are here to judge how historical a season is compared to the others,” he said.
“I think it’s probably fair to say that the world discovered an even more extraordinary Max this season after his fourth world title.
“A bit because of the magnitude of the comeback. A bit because he has been so relaxed, so well seated in the team. Embracing so much that challenge with the right spirit.
“A bit also because we have seen him racing elsewhere. I think it has all taken a bit of a part of our heart when we have seen him spending his free weekends being a new dad, racing with GT cars around the world.
“But for sure, in terms of whatever happens next, the scale of the comeback is something that hopefully will go in a few history books.”
While Verstappen’s comeback eventually fell two points shy of completing the seemingly impossible, the Dutch driver spoke at length about his pride in the team after the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi.
Despite having produced such stellar seasons such as his dominant 2023 title win, Verstappen reckons he has been at a higher level this year.
“I think so,” he said in response to a question from PlanetF1.com about whether 2025 is the best he’s ever driven.
“I have no regrets about my season. I think the performance has been strong. I’ve hated this car at times, but I’ve also loved it at times.
“And I always tried to extract the most from it, even in the difficult weekends that we’ve had. But it’s been, like I said before, a proper rollercoaster with the car.
“Luckily, the last eight, nine rounds in general have been a lot more enjoyable. And also, in the team, we have a great atmosphere at the moment.
“We’re really on a roll — positive energy, belief, confidence — and that’s exactly what you want heading into next year.”
Despite having ultimately lost out, Verstappen said he has finished the year with more pride than some of his title victories.
“At the end of the day, of course, it’s always nicer to win it,” he said.
“But, honestly, I’m sitting here now with probably a better feeling than what I had last year at this time because the second half of last year was pretty tricky at times as well.
“So, we have been struggling for, I would say, a year — the second half of last year and the first half of this year. But I actually feel a lot better now.
“Of course, shame to miss out on the title, but at the same time, for a long period of time, I was not even thinking about the title.
“I never felt like I was in it until a few rounds ago. That’s pretty crazy.
“But you take your pride in different ways. I’m happy with myself, and going into next year I’m not in a state of having to worry about my skills or whatever. So I feel good.”
Of course, Verstappen’s performance uptick coincided with Red Bull unlocking more performance consistency from the RB21, helped by continuous development and the introduction of refinements and tweaks throughout the latter half of the year.
While there will be an opportunity cost to this at the start of F1 2026, Mekies has previously explained the logic behind this as being a necessity for Red Bull to gain a better understanding of its development processes and the correlation between its simulation data and the real world.
This real-world turnaround has been “sensational,” said Mekies. “And the girls and the guys back at home should be proud of what has been achieved.
“I don’t think it happened very often in the last few years or decades, and that’s what we look at.
“It allows us to go into the winter with a level of confidence in our tools, our methodologies, and our approaches. That is important.
“Some of that will be able to carry on to next year’s regulations. Some of that will become less relevant, and I don’t think we should go into making the list of the circumstances and where we could have found these two points.
“We will probably do it internally in a way that we learn from the mistakes we make, but we don’t have to wait for the end of the championship to do that. We always do it.
“But the two points could be everywhere. What is important is that we, as a group, turned around things in the way that was done, and all the credit should go to the different departments.”
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