IndyCar star’s bold Max Verstappen/McLaren F1 claim

IndyCar superstar Alex Palou believes Max Verstappen would have won the 2025 Formula 1 title “two months before the end of the season” in the McLaren.

Four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen had to contend with underwhelming Red Bull machinery in 2025 as he tried to defend his crown.

Looking unlikely to win a fifth title in the summer, he ended up pushing McLaren all the way to the final round, missing out by just two points to Lando Norris at the conclusion of the campaign.

Verstappen has already claimed before that he would have won easily if he’d had a McLaren, which is a position four-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou supports.

“If Max Verstappen had driven the McLaren in 2025, he would have become world champion two months before the end of the season,” he told Mundo Deportivo.

“I am absolutely convinced of that. Max is the only one in the field, I believe, who is capable of something like that.”

Palou took part in an FP1 outing with McLaren in 2022, though his relationship broke down with the outfit following a contract dispute in IndyCar.

The matter was taken to the High Court last year.

Asked if he could have been competitive in the 2025 McLaren, Palou said: “Would I have become world champion with a car as good as the McLaren?

“We’ll never know, but I believe in my abilities, so I suppose I’d have to answer yes.

“I only drove in one Formula 1 weekend, which was in Texas in 2022, so it’s hard to say how I would have fared in the 2025 McLaren.”

Meant to join McLaren in IndyCar in 2024, Palou elected to remain with Chip Ganassi Racing.

He won three IndyCar titles in a row between 2023 and 2025 with CGR, having sealed a fourth in 2021.

Palou also won the Indianapolis 500 last season.