Max Verstappen makes McLaren jab in ‘failures of others’ title verdict

Henry Valantine 29 Nov 2025 8:00 AM

Max Verstappen feels the title race would have been over some time ago, had he been driving at McLaren.

Max Verstappen admitted he is still in the title race because of the “failures of others”, rather than the outright performance of himself and Red Bull.

Both McLaren drivers were disqualified for excessive skid block wear in Las Vegas last time out, and with the Red Bull driver winning, he moved to within 24 points of top spot.

Max Verstappen: ‘Championship would have been over a long time ago’ if I had driven McLaren

Having been 104 points behind the title summit after his home race in the Netherlands, he admitted he had mentally “checked out” of the title race by that stage.

But with significant points gains across the second half of the season, along with McLaren‘s continued commitment to treating both of its drivers fairly, the Dutchman has been able to claw himself back to within a race win’s worth of points of Lando Norris’ advantage.

While he spoke of how unlikely a prospect a fifth consecutive championship remains for him, Verstappen acknowledged his place in the standings is reflective of any stumbles McLaren has taken on the way.

“Five [titles] is better than four,” Verstappen told Formula1.com.

“Listen, also, if it doesn’t happen, it’s not going to change my life, you know? Like, fine, great, if I win another one, but we also have to be realistic.

“We are in this fight still because of other people’s failures, not because of if you look at the whole of the season, what we did.

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“Yes, we did really well. We have really maximised pretty much all races before, but 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.”

Knowing he has nothing to lose in the title fight, Verstappen will be going on the attack in both Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

He still has to avoid losing two points to Norris over the course of this weekend if he is to maintain his chance of title glory, but he will be taking the approach of attacking from the off.

“Of course, the gap closed a bit, but still, 24 points, a lot needs to go well ’til the end to have a chance, but it’s definitely a better chance than what it was before that, so we take it,” he explained to PlanetF1.com and others in Lusail.

“You need to also be aware that even if you win everything, you still need a bit of luck, right? So we’ll see how that goes.

“For us, nothing changes. We go all in. We have nothing to lose.”

Verstappen is looking for a third consecutive victory around the Lusail International Circuit, with two opportunities to score points with this being the final Sprint weekend of the F1 2025 season.

Additional reporting by Mat Coch and Thomas Maher