Max Verstappen on 2025 F1 title race: “It doesn’t feel like a fight”

Max Verstappen has downplayed the intensity of the 2025 F1 title race, admitting that it “doesn’t really feel like a fight” due to Red Bull’s patchy form.

Verstappen is the only driver outside the McLaren duo to win a race in F1 2025.

The four-time world champion’s impressive form means he sits just 25 points behind Oscar Piastri after eight rounds.

Other than at Imola, McLaren have had the fastest car in F1, but with Piastri and Lando Norris taking points off each other, Verstappen has remained in contention.

However, despite the relatively small points gap, Verstappen has downplayed being in a title race.

“For me it doesn’t really feel like a fight to be honest. I just try to do my best, have a bit of fun out there,” Verstappen told media, including Crash.net in Barcelona.

“It’s not like this season up until this point is going to be in my memory forever.”

“I am more excited if I know that we’re going to be super quick. That’s the most exciting. I always try to do my best but this year, so far, we’ve had some real positives but also some real negatives where some races where we’re really off the pace which isn’t enjoyable.”

Verstappen was then asked if it was a case of believing.

He replied: “It’s not that I don’t believe. I just rock up to the track and I do the best that I can every single weekend. I don’t have to believe in it fully or not. I know that every time that I go out there I do the best that I can.

“If that’s with a car that is capable of P5, I will put it P5. If it’s capable of winning, I will win. Honestly, I just approach it very simple which also doesn’t eat up a lot of energy. I have a lot of free time outside of that.”

Verstappen on flexi-wing clampdown

The big talking point going into this weekend is the FIA’s flexi-wing clampdown.

The FIA are imposing stricter tests around the front wing to combat aeroelasticity.

The impact of it is still unclear.

Giving his view on how it could affect the season, Verstappen said: “Not so much. It will change the balance of the car probably a little bit. For us, not too much. I don’t expect massive time gains or losses between the teams.”

“For us, not. I can say that with quite a lot of confidence because those wings never really gave us a massive performance gain. I don’t know if we got it wrong or didn’t extract the most out of it. I am sure it’s all manageable. If you have a good car, you have a good car. The front wing bends a bit less. You can tune around it.”