Verstappen criticizes McLaren’s approach to title fight

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.”