Max Verstappen: “We Didn’t Really Lose” the F1 Title Because We Were Never Truly in the Fight

Reflecting on 2025, Max Verstappen Says He “Never Really Had a Chance” Against McLaren

For most drivers on the Formula 1 grid, losing a world championship by just two points would hurt for years. It would be replayed endlessly in their minds: a missed apex here, a strategy call there, a penalty that suddenly feels unforgivable. But Max Verstappen is not most drivers, and his reflection on the 2025 season tells a very different story.

Speaking candidly after the Abu Dhabi finale, Verstappen made it clear that finishing second in the championship – just two points behind McLaren’s Lando Norris – doesn’t feel like a title lost. In his eyes, it was never really a title he could claim to have had within his grasp.

“We didn’t really lose it,” Verstappen said. “Because we were never really in it.”

It is a statement that perfectly captures both Verstappen’s mindset and the reality of Red Bull’s turbulent 2025 campaign. On paper, the margins were microscopic. In context, however, the season was shaped by forces largely beyond his control.

A Season That Looked Lost Before It Looked Possible

The final standings suggest a nail-biter. The reality for much of the year was anything but. Red Bull began the season on the back foot, struggling to extract consistent performance from a car that lacked balance and predictability. While McLaren surged ahead with a package that worked across almost every circuit type, Verstappen found himself fighting fires rather than fighting for wins.

By the time the paddock rolled into Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen was staring at a daunting deficit. He trailed Oscar Piastri by 104 points, with Norris also comfortably ahead. At that stage, even the most optimistic Red Bull strategist would have admitted that a fifth consecutive world title looked unrealistic.

Red Bull’s problems were not subtle. Set-up windows were narrow, tyre degradation unpredictable, and small mistakes were punished brutally. Pit stop errors crept in. Strategy calls went wrong. Weekends unraveled before they ever truly began.

That context is central to understanding why Verstappen views the final outcome with a sense of perspective rather than regret.

McLaren’s Advantage – and Their Internal Tug of War

One of the defining features of the 2025 season was McLaren’s strength – and the dynamic between their two drivers. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri consistently put themselves in positions to score big points, but in doing so, they often took points off each other.

Verstappen was quick to acknowledge this reality.

“There were two of them,” he explained. “They took a lot of points away from each other.”

From Verstappen’s perspective, that intra-team battle was one of the key reasons he was even able to re-enter the championship conversation late in the year. As McLaren managed internal rivalries, Red Bull quietly made progress behind the scenes.

Set-up improvements, better understanding of the car, and a gradual reduction in unforced errors allowed Verstappen to capitalize when opportunities arose. And McLaren, for all their speed, did leave points on the table.

There were driver mistakes, particularly on Piastri’s side. Strategy calls that backfired. Norris suffered a costly reliability issue at Zandvoort. Then came the dramatic double disqualification in Las Vegas due to excessive plank wear – a moment that swung the championship arithmetic dramatically.

Without those moments, Verstappen freely admits, the title fight wouldn’t even have existed.

Max Verstappen ended the season with eight grand prix wins, one more than champion Lando Norris.

Red Bull’s Mid-Season Reset and a Changing Team Structure

The struggles of the first half of the season triggered more than just technical tweaks. Red Bull underwent a significant internal shift when Christian Horner was replaced as team principal by Laurent Mekies. It was a move that underlined just how serious the situation had become.

For Verstappen, the change marked a reset rather than a turning point. The car did improve, and the team found better rhythm, but the damage had already been done.

“We can be happy that we were able to compete in the championship,” Verstappen reflected. “First of all, we were never in the lead.”

That sentence says everything. Unlike previous seasons where Verstappen dictated terms from the opening races, 2025 was about survival, recovery, and maximizing imperfect weekends. The late-season surge was impressive, but it did not erase the memory of races where Red Bull simply had no answer.

Barcelona, Austria, and the Myth of the ‘One Moment’ That Cost the Title

Every championship battle invites a search for the defining moment – the single incident that “cost” the title. In Verstappen’s case, many pointed to the Spanish Grand Prix, where he was penalised for colliding with George Russell.

On the surface, it looks like a clear points loss, one entirely within Verstappen’s control. But he rejects the idea outright.

“The championship was certainly not lost in Barcelona,” he said.

Instead, Verstappen frames the season as a collection of ups and downs, good fortune and bad luck, rather than a single decisive error. He was knocked out in Austria. Red Bull botched pit stops elsewhere. Entire weekends passed where nothing worked at all.

When viewed as a whole, the Spanish penalty becomes just one moment among many – not a defining failure.

“Looking back, there are lots of things you could have done better,” he admitted. “But we also received a lot of gifts ourselves.”

That honesty is telling. Verstappen is not pretending the season was flawless. He is simply refusing to oversimplify it.

Las Vegas and the Thin Line Between Contending and Not Competing

If there is one race Verstappen repeatedly references, it is Las Vegas – but not for his own performance. McLaren’s double disqualification was pivotal. Without it, Verstappen believes the title race would have been mathematically over long before Abu Dhabi.

“If that doesn’t happen,” he said, “then you’re not even in the race.”

It is a blunt assessment, and an accurate one. The margins that defined the final standings were created by unusual circumstances, not sustained superiority from Red Bull.

That reality feeds directly into Verstappen’s mindset. Finishing second by two points does not feel like a heartbreak. It feels like an overachievement.

“Not Winning Is Not Winning” – Verstappen’s Cold Logic

Perhaps the most revealing part of Verstappen’s reflection comes when he strips the situation of emotion entirely.

“In the end it doesn’t matter if it’s one point, half a point, twenty points,” he said. “Not winning is not winning.”

And then came the line that has already become one of the quotes of the season:

“You’re either pregnant or you’re not. You’re not half pregnant, right?”

It is classic Verstappen. Blunt, slightly provocative, and completely honest. To him, the difference between losing narrowly and losing comfortably is irrelevant when assessing performance over an entire year.

What matters is whether you truly had the tools to win. In 2025, Verstappen believes he didn’t.

Perspective Over Regret as Verstappen Looks Ahead

There is no sense of bitterness in Verstappen’s words, and no hint of self-pity. Instead, there is clarity. The McLarens were faster. Red Bull struggled. The late-season fight was real, but it was also fragile.

For a driver who has dominated the sport in recent years, that perspective is striking. It speaks to Verstappen’s maturity and his understanding of Formula 1 as a team sport shaped by countless variables.

He knows titles are not decided by hypotheticals. They are decided by performance across 24 races.

In 2025, Max Verstappen did not feel like a champion who lost a crown. He felt like a challenger who exceeded expectations. And that, perhaps more than the two-point margin, explains why he can say with such conviction that Red Bull didn’t really lose the title – because they were never truly in the fight to begin with.