Max Verstappen finally makes F1 title declaration after US GP win
Max Verstappen makes F1 2025 title declaration after resounding United States win.
Max Verstappen has finally admitted there is a “chance” he could win the 2025 F1 world championship.
The four-time world champion claimed his fifth victory of the season, and third win in the past four events, with a dominant performance at the United States Grand Prix to underline Red Bull’s recent resurgence.
Verstappen, who also won the sprint race in Austin, has increased the pressure on the McLaren drivers by closing the gap to championship leader Oscar Piastri to 40 points with five races remaining.
The Dutchman took 25 points out of Piastri’s advantage over the course of a stunning weekend in the United States.
Having spent recent months effectively dismissing the notion that he could defend his drivers’ crown this year, Verstappen has now changed his stance.
"Yeah for sure, the chance is there,” Verstappen declared after his latest win. “We just need to try and deliver these weekends until the end.
"We will try whatever we can. It's exciting and I'm very excited until the end."
Verstappen added: "It was an unbelievable weekend for us. I knew the race would not be super straightforward.
"If you look at the whole race, the pace between myself and Lando was really close.
"In that first stint we made a difference, I could eek out a bit of a gap and that was the gap until the end.
"It wasn't easy to manage the tyres in both of the stints. We kept it in the lead and I'm incredibly proud of everyone to deliver a weekend like this."
Red Bull hail ‘extraordinary’ Max Verstappen
Verstappen has gained a total of 64 points on Piastri across the past five races, finishing on the podium at each of those events.
Incredibly, Verstappen has scored as many points across that time as both McLaren drivers combined.
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies was full of praise for his star driver.
"Max has been driving at an incredible level. We have to probably admit we are witnessing something quite extraordinary and, all together [with the team], it has produced that turnaround,” Mekies told Sky Sports F1.
"They know what to do. It's a team that loves racing. We go racing taking risks, they have always gone racing taking risks, and the focus and intensity is still on this weekend. On learning whatever we can still learn from this weekend and putting the best car down to Mexico.
"The rest will just be the consequence."
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