Max Verstappen WILL win the F1 2025 title and this is why McLaren can't stop him

BREAKING: Max Verstappen vertrekt per direct bij Red Bull Racing — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Analysis

Max Verstappen WILL win the F1 2025 title and this is why McLaren can't stop him

Max Verstappen is going to win his fifth title

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 31 October 2025 17:56

With the 2025 F1 season drawing to a close, we have an exciting three-way championship battle in store.

Four-time world champion Max Verstappen is 35 points behind McLaren's Oscar Piastri in the standings, who is just one point behind team-mate and championship leader Lando Norris.

There are just four race weekends left in this thrilling championship battle.

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So why does it feel like it's Verstappen's to lose? Is it just because it's Max, or are there deeper reasons why so many people feel this way despite his clear points deficit to the two McLaren drivers?

Remaining events suit Verstappen to a tee

Throw it back to last season, when Norris was desperately trying to hunt down Verstappen in the drivers' championship.

With the problems present with the RB20, Verstappen was only able to win two of the last 14 grands prix of the season. It was a good job he had such a big lead built up before that.

Yet the two races he won were the Brazilian and Qatar grands prix. Who can forget Verstappen's masterclass in the wet at Interlagos to all but seal the 2024 title despite having started the race down in 12th?

Both Brazil and Qatar are still to come in 2025, two races that Verstappen has won in each of the last two years. What's more, they are sprint weekends, meaning more points are on offer in these events.

The McLarens will know it will take an almighty effort to stop him at either of those two tracks.

In fact, Piastri has never claimed a grand prix win at any of the four remaining races, while Norris has just a single victory to his name at the Abu Dhabi GP from last year, with the track once again hosting this year's season finale.

But we all know what Max can do in Abu Dhabi when there's a title on the line...

The only remaining track we haven't mentioned of course is the Las Vegas GP, which is a bit of an outlier with F1 having only raced there twice before. However, Verstappen did win one of those races, in 2023.

Position	Driver	Team	Points
1	Lando Norris	McLaren	357
2	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	356
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	321

Red Bull are still developing their car

Earlier this week, Helmut Marko warned McLaren that Red Bull are certainly not taking their eye off the ball for 2026, but in fairness to the papaya outfit, it is clear to see that Red Bull have been making changes to their 2025 car a lot later than their rivals.

McLaren are now fully focused on 2026 from a car development point of view, with new regulations sweeping into the sport, making it crucial for teams to get it right.

But it is easy to forget that there's still a championship to be won in 2025. Red Bull's focus on 2025 still comes from the fact that they feel like they may not be able to challenge Mercedes and McLaren for the title in 2026 anyway, so they may as well go all out to try and secure Verstappen his fifth title while they've got the chance.

That way of thinking can only be beneficial to the Dutchman's chances.

How Max Verstappen can win the 2025 F1 championship

Verstappen's aura

Aura is an overused term in sport, and it can sometimes be levelled against very talented players and teams that they don't have the correct 'aura' to achieve something - a ridiculous sentiment.

But aura is something Verstappen has in bucket loads. He's the only one of the three racers to know what it's like to taste championship success, and he's done it four times!

Imagine if it was George Russell currently 36 points behind the McLarens, another driver who has never been in a title fight before. Piastri and Norris probably wouldn't even bat an eyelid, and would just continue going all out against each other.

But a 68-time race winner, four-time champion? That's different. And you can understand if McLaren have started to think as a team that they might not be able to secure their first drivers' title since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

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Written by

Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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F1 Max Verstappen