Max Verstappen theory shut down as Red Bull ace gets new hope in McLaren fight

Max Verstappen's fears that he won't win another Grand Prix before the end of the 2025 campaign are unfounded, according to Express Sport readers. The Dutchman has finished on the podium just once in the last seven race weekends, with Red Bull's decline showing no signs of slowing down. Verstappen's title defence was dead on arrival in 2025 when McLaren came out fighting with a dominant car at the Australian Grand Prix.

In the first 14 rounds of the campaign, the four-time world champion has only recorded victories in Japan and Imola, both of which were achieved without the fastest machinery. Laurent Mekies' squad are now comfortably the fourth-fastest team, with third-placed Mercedes now 42 points ahead in the Constructors' Championship standings. With no podium in his last four outings, Verstappen was downbeat about the team's chances of returning to the top step of the podium this season after the race in Hungary.

"No, not the way things are going right now," he declared. "That's just the way it is. It's clear. There's nothing I can do about it. I could get angry, but that won't make the car any faster."

According to Express Sport readers, though, Verstappen has no reason to fear. In a survey of 2,900 voters 70 per cent believe that the 27-year-old will take the chequered flag in the lead of a race for a third time before the end of the 2025 campaign, with only 30 per cent backing up the Red Bull racer's comment.

This attitude is supported by team principal Mekies, who refused to accept that Red Bull's chances of scoring wins this season were over, despite their star driver now sitting 97 points behind McLaren's championship leader, Oscar Piastri.

"It was a tough weekend," Mekies said in response to Verstappen's comment in Hungary. "I don't think what you see this weekend represents where the car is at. We accept the fact that we are probably not very strong on tracks like here, but what we have seen today was outstanding.

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"So, if you look, no question McLaren are faster, but look at Spa, Max was able to fight certainly on Saturday and surprise everyone in the sprint. So, let's see. The season is still very long.

"Even if car development is going to heavily slow down or is pretty much going to be minimum from now on, we still have a lot of things we can learn, as this weekend showed. And through that, as difficult and as uncomfortable as it is, fundamentally, you learn through these sorts of weekends.

"So better to have them early on. We will learn, and if we are able to extract a bit more of the car, thanks to weekends like today, then hopefully we can put up a better fight."