Max Verstappen said that being the only Red Bull driver who can challenge McLaren in the 2025 Formula 1 season is more of an advantage than a disadvantage.

In 2025, the Milton Keynes team again tried to solve the problem of the second car. However, the experiment with Liam Lawson failed – after two unsuccessful weekends, the New Zealander was replaced by Yuki Tsunoda.

However, the Japanese racer has not been able to perform at a consistently high level. Red Bull therefore decided to move Tsunoda to the reserve driver role in 2026, betting on Isak Hajjar.

Verstappen was forced to face McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri alone in the second half of the season, launching a surprise comeback to the title challenge.

Although Red Bull does not have a second car in the leading group for a more flexible strategy, Verstappen believes his status as the sole favorite has helped him.

“When you are alone you can attack and be much more aggressive. I always prefer that,” Verstappen said.
“If we’re almost equal in speed then I can only wish them luck because then you’ll start to work out the issues between you.”

The four-time world champion also emphasized that Norris and Piastri regularly take points away from each other, while McLaren’s driver parity policy makes strategic decisions difficult for the team.

Therefore, according to Verstappen, he would always determine the hierarchy in the team.

“If I were the team leader, I would always clearly define numbers one and two,” the Dutchman said.
“Of course, the second driver needs to collect enough points to compete for the constructors’ championship. But there needs to be a hierarchy.”

According to Verstappen, it was the lack of such an approach that cost McLaren some of its strategic advantages.

“They lost some of their strategic capabilities because they had two equal pilots. Of course, we benefited from that.”

The Formula 1 2025 season was full of competition and transitions. Although fewer in number than last year and fans and drivers not always able to enjoy the action on track, there were still plenty of genuine overtakes.

On some routes there were very few, as expected. The fewest overtakes took place in Monaco; There were only four overtakes during the entire race. And most of them were at the season finale, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – 60th.

Below is the exact number of actual overtakes on each stage; this number does not take into account position changes on pit road during the first lap as the driver exits or exits the track. The chart only reflects actual overtaking on the motorway.

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The Verstappen Racing team has opened a new page in the history of the Max Verstappen racing program by signing an agreement with Mercedes-AMG Motorsport.

According to the agreement, the team will continue to compete in GT World Challenge Europe and will switch to the Mercedes-AMG GT3 car for the Sprint Cup and Endurance Cup series from 2026.

Chris Lalham will continue to compete in Sprint Cup for the second consecutive season. He will be joined by Daniel Juncdella, who has extensive experience in GT3 and a strong background at Mercedes-AMG. The duo will compete in five Sprint Cup rounds at iconic European tracks.

Verstappen Racing will also compete in the Endurance Cup GT World Challenge Europe in 2026. Lalham and Juncdella will be joined by Jules Gougnon on five Endurance tours, including the legendary 24 Hours of Spa.

The team’s opponent will be Ukrainian Ivan Klimenko, who competes in the Silver class in the same championship.

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