Sep.26 (GMM) Max Verstappen has instantly emerged as a darkish horse for a fifth consecutive world championship after back-to-back wins at Monza and Baku.
Simply weeks in the past, each Verstappen and Purple Bull advisor Helmut Marko had dismissed their title possibilities. However with Christian Horner gone, a brand new flooring on the RB21, and McLaren’s lead drivers starting to falter, the Dutchman has lower the hole to 69 factors behind Oscar Piastri and 44 behind Lando Norris.
“I imply, we’ve already obtained the calculators out, haven’t we?” laughed former Purple Bull driver Robert Doornbos on the Pit Speak podcast. “This feels a bit like what Vettel did in 2013. This F1 season is unpredictable. After the summer time break they put in a brand new flooring, he gained in Monza with the most important margin of the season up to now, then he went to Baku and gained a Grand Slam.”
Doornbos mentioned the breakthrough got here from the brand new flooring. “This yr, about 65 % of your downforce comes from the ground. It’s a really dominant issue,” he defined. “You possibly can by no means loosen up in Method 1, however you do know whenever you’ve discovered one thing. The inspiration is there, and it appears they’ve discovered one thing.”
He additionally seen a extra relaxed Verstappen. “He laughs on the competitors. That’s not smug – he’s solely centered on himself,” Doornbos mentioned.
One other ex-driver, Christian Danner, advised Motorsport-Magazin.com he refuses to put in writing Verstappen off. “Regardless of how unhealthy issues are at Purple Bull, Verstappen is sort of a terrier. You possibly can’t shake Max off that simply. It’s not in his nature to surrender.”
Sky pundit Ralf Schumacher thinks Baku confirmed McLaren wobbling underneath stress. “The McLaren merely didn’t have the grip window that Piastri is used to,” he mentioned. “Small errors can happen that haven’t been seen earlier than as a result of they often drive round them. Baku was a turning level.”
And Purple Bull staff boss Laurent Mekies made clear the staff continues to be combating on two fronts. “We’re not going to spare any effort on this 2025 marketing campaign,” he mentioned. “Little by little, the work that Max and Yuki have been doing with all the staff has paid off, and not less than right here and in Monza we’re again within the battle.”
“We’re combating to study increasingly more, as a result of though the 2026 rules are fully totally different, there’s at all times rather a lot we will carry over from this season.”
