Max Verstappen says he is proud of the way Red Bull has turned around its season in 2025 and kept him in title contention following his victory in the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
A dominant win was originally secured ahead of Lando Norris on Saturday night, with Verstappen provisionally closing the gap to the McLaren driver to 42 points. That kept Verstappen in with a mathematical chance in the title fight heading to Qatar even before both McLarens were disqualified for excessive plank wear, and speaking before the gap closed to 24 points the Dutchman said he’s enjoying fighting for wins in isolation.
“I think that’s the better approach,” Verstappen said. “It’s still a big gap. But we always try to just maximize everything that we’ve got. And this weekend, that was first. And the upcoming weekends we’ll again try to win the race. And at the end of Abu Dhabi, we’ll see where we end up.
“But I’m very proud of everyone. We’ve had a really up and down season and tough times, but also really beautiful moments. And we learned a lot throughout the whole season, and that’s also very valuable for the upcoming years.
“So that’s something that we just have to cling on to and [we’ll] just try to improve even more to come back stronger for next year, to put up a fight from the start of the year in the championship. But we’re enjoying it now, and then we’ll see next week what we can do again.”
Verstappen was 104 points behind then-championship leader Oscar Piastri following the Dutch Grand Prix seven races ago, and says a key part of his resurgence has been the ability for Red Bull to still score heavily during less competitive race weekends.
“We have been more consistently on the podium. Some races we’ve not been in contention for the win, but from, I would say, the middle of ’24 until the middle of ’25, we were probably more off the podium than on. And now, at least, we are always fighting for a second or a third place, but at least on the podium, and that’s already I think a very good step forward for us.
“I think that should have been the case from the start, of course, if you want to really fight for a title. Unfortunately, we didn’t get it right in the beginning, but at least now it’s more consistent and sometimes it’s good enough then to win.”
