Perez makes Max Verstappen title prediction with McLaren ‘messing around’

Max Verstappen is mounting a charge to snatch the Drivers’ Championship away from McLaren and claim his fifth straight crown.

It is a remarkable recovery mission which continues to gather momentum, as Verstappen heads into the final four rounds of the season just 36 points behind Drivers’ Championship leader Lando Norris. With McLaren “messing around”, Verstappen’s former Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez is backing him to get the job done.

Max Verstappen to make it five in a row in F1 2025?

Verstappen has four grands prix and two sprints remaining at his disposal to complete the turnaround, having injected late jeopardy into McLaren’s hopes of the title double.

McLaren has remained committed to maintaining a level playing field for both drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, to chase the title, despite a far less dominant spell for the papaya team in recent times.

Norris delivered a statement drive to victory last time out in Mexico, putting him back atop the Drivers’ Championship. With just one point now separating Norris and Piastri, McLaren has arguably lost the opportunity to prioritise one driver in the bid to see off a rampant Verstappen.

Speaking with Sky F1, Perez, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate from 2021-24, highlighted him as the most deserving champion to take the 2025 crown.

“Max has been basically the action of the year, you know, he’s keeping everyone watching Formula 1,” said Perez.

“Somehow they managed to transform the season, and now, with McLaren messing around, I think he has a real chance of getting it done. And I think he is the driver that deserves the most, this championship, because he’s been driving phenomenally.”

So, Perez feels Verstappen would be the most deserving F1 2025 champion. But, does he predict that Verstappen will actually get the job done? It would be one of the all-time great championship comebacks.

“I think so,” Perez confirmed.

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Verstappen, understandably, has refrained from getting too deep into assessing his title chances. But, despite actually reducing his deficit to P1 further as Norris took over top spot in Mexico, Verstappen gave a downbeat update on his quest. A perfectly-executed one-stop strategy saw Verstappen finish third.

Asked in the post-Mexican GP press conference how bullish he was feeling with four rounds to go, having further chipped away at the deficit to P1, Verstappen said: “I mean, I lost 10 to Lando, if you look at it like that.

“So, I said before the weekend, everything needs to go perfect to win. And this weekend didn’t go perfect. So that’s your answer.

“I think it’s going to be tough, but let’s see what we can do in other tracks. I hope, of course, we won’t experience a weekend like this again, but it still shows that we’re not quick in every scenario. And that’s what we need to understand, I think, a bit better.”

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