AUSTIN, TEXAS — If Someone Had Told You max verstappenHis reaction, after his home race 49 days earlier, that he would be title contender by the end of the US Grand Prix would have been obvious.
“I would have told him he was an idiot,” Verstappen concluded on Sunday. A sprint and grand prix double at the Austin Circuit of the Americas To move within 40 points of the championship leader oscar piastri Five races and two sprints remain. This confirmed what sentiment was rising formula 1 RECENT: That the 2025 season is a three-way battle.
When you remember Verstappen’s home race at the end of August, this seems like a foolish proposition indeed. Piastri stood on top of the podium feeling like the Australian had lost his first F1 world championship. mclaren teammates lando norris He did not join him there: the Englishman finished his race that day by bowing in the sand dunes at the edge of the Zandvoort circuit, lamenting a late car failure that left him 34 points behind in the two-horse race between the two leading papaya orange cars. Verstappen inherited second place from Norris, but left his home race 104 points behind, seemingly a footnote in the battle at the front.
While Norris’s chances looked poor, Verstappen’s chances looked slim to none. But as the famous warning is read on the mirror of the jeep being driven by the heroes of Jurassic Park as they are being chased by a T-Rex: objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. It’s a meme that’s been making the rounds throughout Austin weekend. To their credit, McLaren had always claimed that Verstappen would be a factor in the run-in, and the races since the Dutch GP have proven them right.
Zandvoort got a dominant Verstappen win at the Italian Grand Prix seven days later, more akin to his record-breaking 2022 and 2023 seasons than the stuttering performances that characterized parts of 2025. This was followed by a dominant win in Baku, where Piastri crashed out of qualifying and the race and Norris failed to take advantage. Then came second place in Singapore before a trip to Austin and one of the most complete performances you will see in modern Formula 1: sprint pole, sprint win, leading every lap, Grand Prix pole, grand prix win, leading every lap. Any pedant might point out that Verstappen didn’t set the fastest lap on Sunday, but if F1 still gave a point for that accolade, there’s no doubt he would have gone for it – he was a man in complete control every step of the way.
“Well done, Max. It was a true display of dominance, what can I say,” Red Bull boss Laurent Mackies said on the radio at the conclusion of the race. “You achieved everything this weekend. Everything. And by quite a margin. You were very brave throughout the weekend. You took nothing for granted and just kept on leading. Well done. Very impressive.”
In a career full of accolades and surprising drivers, Verstappen’s form is near all-time territory right now. The fact that he’s even in a title fight that seemed so predictable until recently says a lot about the extraordinary talent he has behind the wheel of a race car.
And while Verstappen deserves credit, Red Bull has made significant steps on and off track to unlock it. A new floor brought by the team to Monza helped bring about a massive change in pace compared to the McLarens, but Verstappen has also changed significantly since the summer break.
It must be said that there is one win missing from that impressive list of achievements since Zandvoort: his first endurance race win in the famous Nordschleife configuration of the Nürburgring, a circuit nicknamed “The Green Hell”, which Verstappen casually completed over the weekend between winning in Baku and claiming second place in Singapore. It’s an achievement that shouldn’t be overlooked in the context of what he’s going through now, as Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko pointed out earlier this weekend.
“Max, at a time when we were not competitive, I would say he lost a bit of interest,” Marko told Sky Sports after watching Verstappen claim pole position on Saturday. “He was more interested in GT racing, so to keep him in a good mood I was talking about the Nürburgring and things like that. But now that the car is working and with his success at the Nürburgring, I’d say two tenths came from him because he’s really motivated, he’s enjoying. [F1]You can’t hear him yelling, he’s smiling, so that’s what you need.”
It’s a powerful combination: a rejuvenated, re-inspired and recharged Verstappen, coupled with a Red Bull car that appears to have unleashed its full potential under the calm and collected approach of Meckese, the soft-spoken former engineer who replaced Christian Horner as team boss in July. Red Bull is humming along the way, and its change comes just as McLaren appears to be driving itself further and further into a corner over its commitment to keeping the fight between Piastri and Norris fair until the end.
papaya problem
Under more normal circumstances, an obvious solution might exist for McLaren: team orders, the simple principle being that one driver is prioritized over the other to reduce the threat to Verstappen. McLaren have rejected the idea of doing so, and the fact that Norris is now only 14 points behind Piastri means the idea of imposing team orders makes less sense than before.
Questions over how the team approaches the run-in will be more relevant now than ever as McLaren itself has been stumbling for some time. The chatter was about coming to Austin There will be some “consequences” of McLaren’s decision to hand over Norris After a lengthy review of the incident he was directly blamed for his contact with Piastri at the start of the Singapore Grand Prix. The team did not say what exactly that punishment was, only that it was sporting, not financial. McLaren Racing CEO Jack Brown claimed they were not harsh, although Norris said in a Sky Sports interview that the results in question would affect him until the end of the season.
The team will review another incident between now and the race in Mexico City in seven days’ time, in which Piastri triggered a four-car collision at the start of Saturday’s sprint, taking him and Norris out of the race and giving Verstappen eight free points. McLaren has been interfering in the title fight since Piastri was controversially asked to step in for Norris at Monza. It was a mess when Verstappen was a distant outsider in the title race, but with the speed, form and confidence on Verstappen’s side, it feels even more like McLaren simply didn’t need to create an upset for themselves.
A more worrisome form of piastrea may occur in the short term. For most of the year, the Australian looks like a mini Verstappen: cold-blooded, ruthless, metronomic. It would be easy to guess from the dual crashes in Baku and this weekend in Austin that cracks were beginning to appear in his usually steely demeanor, but Piastri is still leaving America with the championship lead, a situation in which no driver will trade places in any F1 season. When asked about it on Sunday, he seemed especially calm about how the headline picture has changed so dramatically.
,[Max is] Obviously he’s there and he’s fast, but I think the biggest focus for me is just trying to figure out why this weekend was tough and try to get back to the form we had earlier in the season,” Piastri said. “So that’s my biggest focus, and if we can get that again, the results will take care of themselves.”
As far as Norris is concerned, it may get lost in Verstappen’s praise or the headlines surrounding the sprint collision (and any consequences it may have), but Austin was another quietly encouraging weekend for him. There is a strong case that he is the stronger of the two McLaren drivers after his car broke down in the Netherlands.
He has also shown some championship potential in consecutive races now, even if it is difficult to recognise. Norris’ aggressive move on Piastri in Singapore was within the framework of the guidelines that McLaren wanted its drivers to race within throughout the year, but had it been a move between title rivals from different teams, it would likely have been hailed as a decisive overtake that displayed the pedigree necessary to become champion. It was exactly the kind of fight Norris’s detractors have said he doesn’t have under pressure.
And while he didn’t beat Verstappen in any of the Austin races, we saw the Englishman’s impressive ability on the track. Twice he had to wait patiently for the Ferrari to overtake him charles leclerc And he did so with neat moves on both occasions, when it would have been easy to try too hard too soon and squander his McLaren’s speed advantage. In doing so, he reduced the points lost to Verstappen and ensured he beat Piastri again.
Norris closed the gap on Piastri to 14 points on Sunday, but recent form has brought him back into the mix.
When asked about doing enough to reduce Piastri’s lead and damage Verstappen’s resurgence, he said, “I mean, it doesn’t really matter.” “I currently get the most points I can every weekend, so the more points I get, the better for both situations. It doesn’t matter. Nothing changes. I don’t have to do anything different for both. It’s that simple.”
This championship battle has become simpler at McLaren. Verstappen being there is a wildcard factor that has, at one point, turned a predictable championship battle between teammates into the wildest three-way battle the sport has ever seen. Verstappen has finished ahead of both McLaren drivers in each of the last four races – there is no reason to think that the race will stop in Mexico City.
If you have any doubts, you can be sure of one thing: this title fight is on.
