Red Bull ‘kicking themselves’ over RB21 breakthrough as McLaren warned to watch out
Jonathan Wheatley heaped praise on his former Red Bull colleagues, adding they'll likely be "kicking themselves" their performance gains did not come sooner.
Sauber team principal Jonathan Wheatley warned McLaren about the recent charge of Max Verstappen, even if Red Bull would be “kicking themselves” that the team’s recent performance uptick had not come sooner.
The former Red Bull sporting director also dubbed the reigning World Champion the “best driver in the world”, and thinks the current championship leaders should be looking over their shoulders at this stage.
Wheatley: ‘You can never write Max Verstappen off’
Verstappen has closed a 104-point deficit to championship leader Oscar Piastri down to 40 points in the space of four races, with five rounds and two Sprints yet to come in 2025.
Even though it is the McLaren duo that holds the advantage in the standings, the four-time World Champion is being increasingly backed to mount a late title challenge, with senior advisor Helmut Marko hinting that Red Bull still may yet have a further upgrade to bring to the track this season.
Wheatley worked with Verstappen from his arrival within the Red Bull stable until he departed for Sauber in 2024, and explained that he had no doubt that Red Bull would be able to recover its deficit to McLaren, even if the team wish it would have happened earlier in the campaign.
As for the Dutch driver, Wheatley believes McLaren should keep a close eye in the coming races.
“You can never write Max Verstappen off,” Wheatley told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets in Austin.
“What a weekend. What an unbelievable, dominant weekend from Max. Yes, it’s pleasure to watch. I don’t know if you all feel the same, but I enjoy watching it, I have to say.
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“Red Bull is a class racing team, Max Verstappen is the best driver in the world. The fact that they found some performance in the car, I think they’re probably kicking themselves they didn’t find it sooner, but I’m not surprised that they’ve been able to do that.
“In the years that I worked there, quite often there was a big turnaround between Friday night and Saturday in terms of performance, so if I was McLaren, I’d be looking in my rear view mirrors.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said after the race that only “mathematics” would force the team into prioritising one driver over the other to secure a title victory, despite Verstappen’s recent surge.
Wheatley conceded that a fifth consecutive title may be improbable at this stage, but believes anything is possible in the final five rounds.
“I mean, as long as it’s numerically possible, it’s possible,” Wheatley said.
“I get it because they were also not competitive – more competitive than [Sauber] were in those races – but not as competitive as the McLaren.
“The truth is, this is how we race. As long as it’s numerically possible, it’s possible. Is it probable? Not normally, but Max tends to rewrite rules to suit himself, and has done his whole career.”
Verstappen joins the rest of the field in Mexico City this weekend, with the Red Bull driver already holding the all-time victory record around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, having already won there five times to date.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock
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