Max Verstappen reveals his true title chances in ‘nothing to lose’ verdict

Max Verstappen has jokingly given himself a 50 per cent chance of winning the F1 2025 title — “because either I do, or I don’t!”

The cheeky reply brought to a close his discussions of the Red Bull team’s uptick in performance following Verstappen’s back-to-back wins at the two previous grands prix. But as for how he’s handling the pressure, the reigning champion says he’s just taking it one race at a time.

Max Verstappen taking 2025 title race by race

Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing have looked extremely dominant since the FIA introduced Formula 1’s 2022 regulatory set, allowing the outfit to secure three consecutive titles off the back of its late-season 2021 championship victory.

But heading into 2025, it was clear the Milton Keynes team had a difficult task ahead. McLaren Racing had shown a resurgence in competitiveness following an upgrade at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, and its MCL39 was obviously quick in pre-season testing.

Yet despite the fact that many onlookers have put their eggs in the McLaren championship basket, a recent return to form for Verstappen has shifted the narrative.

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Red Bull’s 2025 challenger, the RB21, has presented major issues for Verstappen as well as for his two teammates this season, Liam Lawson and later Yuki Tsunoda. The car has been unbalanced and unpredictable, which makes it nearly impossible to have any confidence in pushing that car to its limit.

But a new floor upgrade at the Italian Grand Prix appeared to turn the tides, with Verstappen winning the race ahead of both McLaren drivers, who joined him on the podium.

Then came the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where Verstappen took yet another victory as championship leader Oscar Piastri crashed out of competition and teammate Lando Norris could only manage to finish seventh. In the course of two weekends, Verstappen had carved down the gap to Piastri from 104 points to 69.

Now, of course, that’s still quite a major deficit to overcome — yet that didn’t stop Verstappen from joking to media ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix that he feels he has a “50 per cent” chance of taking the title.

“Because I do, or I don’t!” he explained with a laugh.

In reality, Verstappen has clarified that he’s not setting his hopes too high heading into the late stages of the 2025 season; rather, he intends to turn up at the track and do his best.

“From my side, honestly, I just see it as a race-by-race thing,” the reigning champion admitted.

“Sixty-nine points is still a lot, especially if you look at how the season has gone so far. I mean, McLaren has been incredibly dominant. That doesn’t suddenly change.

“So for me, I’m not too stressed about anything. I’m just enjoying what I’m doing in F1, outside of it, having fun and, yeah, just trying to do the best I can every single time that I jump in the car.

“Some tracks naturally will be a bit better for us. Some probably a bit worse. Maybe this one a bit worse.

“If we win it, we win it, great. If we don’t, we don’t. Life goes on. I’m just not too stressed about anything.”

The Singapore Grand Prix is one of the few races that Max Verstappen hasn’t won yet in his record-breaking career, and current expectations don’t see Red Bull’s RB21 outperforming the McLarens at Marina Bay.

However, hot conditions and potential rainstorms throughout the weekend could result in a major running-order shake-up; it’s far too early to count Verstappen out.

Asked if he feels that the very fact that he’s even being considered as a title threat is a sign of how well he’s been driving, Verstappen did admit it’s perhaps a nice feeling.

“Sometimes maybe it was a bit more difficult to show that in the middle of the season,” he said.

“But I think every time that you progress as a driver, every single year, you want to become better, or at least be similar to what you have achieved in the past. And I think we are doing that.

“The car has not always been nice or easy to drive, but lately it does seem that it’s heading in the right direction. And then naturally, with a car that is a bit more competitive and also a bit more predictable, you can show better things. I think that’s quite normal.

“But in general, of course, very happy with the driving side of things throughout the whole, the whole season.”

Still, that “nothing to lose” mindset will be the predominant one heading into the closing stages of 2025.

“We try to do the best we can and try to be more competitive, try to hopefully confirm that the direction we took with the car is more competitive, also on a track like this,” the Dutch driver said of his Red Bull team.

“That’s what we hope will happen, and then we’ll see what happens from here.”

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