McLaren boss fears Verstappen’s resurgence threatens Piastri and Norris title hopes
Max Verstappen‘s recent victory in Azerbaijan has McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella worried about his drivers’ championship chances.
“We don’t have to forget that Red Bull won two races at the start of the season,” Stella said after Verstappen’s win in Baku.
“And then, if anything, they kind of slipped back in terms of performance and now they seem like they’ve found their way back.”
The Italian team boss believes Red Bull has remained a serious threat throughout the 2025 season, despite McLaren’s recent dominance.
“They were in contention for victories already at the start of the season,” he pointed out.
Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have made costly mistakes this year that prevented them from building a more comfortable lead over Verstappen in the standings. Now Stella admits the Dutchman is right back in the title hunt.
With only a 69-point cushion, one bad weekend could dramatically shrink that advantage.
“For us considering especially the drivers championship certainly the margins for error reduce further,” Stella warned.
He stressed that mistake-free racing is what his drivers need to focus on in the remaining seven races.
“This is always the ethos when you race in Formula 1.”
Stella hopes the team has gotten their issues out of the way after a difficult weekend in Azerbaijan.
“Hopefully some of the inaccuracies and issues have accumulated in this weekend,” he said. “Because we not only didn’t have a fast enough car, but we also had some reliability issues that cost Oscar some time during practice.”
The McLaren boss took responsibility as well, adding: “Therefore, quite a lot to take away for the drivers, but also for the team.”
## Is Verstappen back in the title fight?
GPblog columnist Ben Hunt believes Piastri’s lead is still big enough to secure the championship. However, he warns that Norris is the one truly under threat from Verstappen’s comeback.
Stella thinks Red Bull’s recent floor upgrade introduced at Monza has given them a significant performance boost, as evidenced by their Baku triumph.
Despite this, Red Bull Team Principal Laurent Mekies has downplayed championship talk within the team. He insists they’re solely focused on maximizing lap time gains rather than title calculations.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko is taking a more cautious approach, preferring to wait until after the Singapore Grand Prix before judging whether Verstappen has a realistic shot at the championship.
As for the three-time world champion himself? Verstappen has neither confirmed nor denied his renewed title chances.
With seven races remaining and momentum seemingly shifting, the championship battle might just be heating up again.
