Red Bull good at inventing its own underdog "narrative," says Andrea Stella

Max Verstappen will start on pole position for Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix, but McLaren team boss Andrea Stella does not buy into the idea that Red Bull is a complete underdog

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes Formula 1 rival Red Bull is inventing a “narrative” that suggests it is achieving miracles just by competing for pole positions and wins this season.

Max Verstappen sealed his third pole of 2025 for Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix and will be aiming to convert it into a second victory of the campaign to remain in the fight for a fifth consecutive drivers’ title.

The Dutchman has been able to keep the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri honest so far, despite widespread acknowledgement that the reigning champions have the fastest car on the grid.

But for Stella, the suggestion that Red Bull is severely lagging behind in the battle at the front is something it is happy to play in to.

"Red Bull are very good at making fast cars, exceptionally good at driving fast cars and they are extremely good also in creating the narrative to their advantage," he said.

"They exploit every possible opportunity to stay in the competition and some of these opportunities are to sometimes create the narrative like: 'Oh, we are making miracles here, the others should win every single practice session and qualifying and race'.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

"This is the narrative created by some of our competitors, which we read occasionally and then we change the page, and we focus on ourselves. We look at the facts, we look at what we should be improving and there's a lot that we should be improving.

“So for me when I look at the facts. I also look at what Lando and Oscar deliver and deliver quite consistently, so yeah, well done to Red Bull even in terms of the way they manage their non-technical opportunities.”

Norris will start alongside Verstappen on the front row in Miami and, when asked by Motorsport.com in the post-qualifying press conference if his rival was getting more out of the Red Bull than he and Piastri in the superior McLaren, Norris replied: “It is impossible to know what car he's got compared to us. The advantage we have is two quick drivers and they don't.

“We have a car that's capable of allowing drivers to drive quicker but impossible to know, impossible to actually know the difference between the two cars.”