Max Verstappen's secret Red Bull advantage in shock McLaren title fight

A former F1 champion has suggested that Max Verstappen has an advantage in the 2025 drivers' championship battle.

Back-to-back wins in Monza and Baku have put the four-time F1 champion in with a faint chance of securing a record-equalling fifth consecutive world championship title.

Verstappen is now just 69 points behind Oscar Piastri and 44 behind Lando Norris, despite the fact that McLaren have dominated the 2025 season.

The Dutchman has managed to claim four race victories across a season in which his Red Bull team are sat fourth in the constructors' championship, an impressive feat even by Verstappen's very high standards.

With seven race weekends remaining in the season, Verstappen may just hold out hope that he can muscle himself back into contention, particularly with Norris and Piastri so focused upon each other.

McLaren boss Andrea Stella said that Verstappen is 'absolutely' in the championship battle during the Azerbaijan GP weekend, and now, 1997 champion Jacques Villeneuve has reiterated that sentiment.

Villeneuve even believes that Verstappen has the advantage, being the hunter rather than the hunted, a position that he hasn't experienced at this stage of a season before.

"Well, when fighting for the championship, you're always on the edge," Villeneuve told OLBG. "You know that you can't afford a tiny misstep, because the one running behind you is running faster and you know that he will not hit a branch!

"The more you look backwards the more you stumble so it's very difficult. You know when you see those movies where a person is running away from the other? Always looking backwards, always stressed, and it's the one behind that always ends up catching up.

"It’s a pressure that's very, very tough to deal with in the Max situation, he's behind, he sees where they are. He knows exactly where he has to go. It's easy. But when you're ahead, you can't see what's happening behind. You’re tempted to look behind but you can’t afford to.

"Red Bull have turned things around and they're great under pressure. They're great fighters. And McLaren has shown last year that they're not. They know that internally. The drivers know that, so that's why they feel the heat. Max is right. And the fact that he says that will just add to the pressure. It just starts colouring the picture."

Can Verstappen win the championship?

Piastri's two mistakes in qualifying and the race at Baku were uncharacteristic for a driver that has been so consistent throughout 2025, but meant that he scored zero points, allowing his rivals some hope.

For large swathes of the season, it has been thought that the championship was simply between Piastri and his McLaren team-mate Norris, who lost out to Verstappen in last year's championship fight.

But it seems as though Verstappen could yet have something to say about that. He has been in scintillating form throughout 2025, winning four races in a season in which McLaren have dominated, and has all the championship-winning experience that Piastri and Norris lack.

Not having had the experience of losing out to the imperious Verstappen before may just work in Piastri's favour, with Norris knowing all too well the kind of racing tactics Verstappen adopts when he knows he has a sniff of a championship battle.

Piastri will likely not be flustered by the Dutchman just yet, but any more wins for Verstappen could start to make the two-horse race look like a three-horse race.

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