What Max Verstappen really thinks of his F1 title chances: “We should have won Singapore”

Did a missed opportunity in Singapore signal the end of Verstappen’s title chances? The Dutchman certainly thinks so

Max Verstappen believes that – barring any drama at McLaren – he needed to win the Singapore Grand Prix to have any serious shot at the 2025 F1 title. According to the Dutchman, that victory was within reach for Red Bull.

With six race weekends remaining, Verstappen trails championship leader Oscar Piastri by 63 points. McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said in Baku that all media should write in capital letters that Verstappen is still a “serious threat” for the F1 title, but the Red Bull driver himself isn’t going that far.

In Singapore, he jokingly said the chances of him winning it are 50%, something he repeated in Texas: “You either win or you don’t. It’s fifty-fifty – that's how simple it is.”

Could Verstappen and Red Bull have won in Singapore?

In Verstappen’s opinion, the win was within reach for Red Bull in Singapore. McLaren wasn’t as dominant as expected, meaning opportunities were there. After the race under the floodlights, Verstappen immediately admitted that Red Bull hadn’t maximised its weekend – a view he still stands by. It partly came down to a setup change made before qualifying that didn’t have the intended effect.

“I think, based on how we started the race weekend, it would have been better like that,” he said. “But those choices were made as a team. Looking back, we were just a bit too conservative, I think.”

The start didn’t help either, although Verstappen said there wasn’t much he could have done about it. Red Bull opted for soft tyres and a so-called ‘low grip’ setting for the start, as rain had fallen just before the grid procedure. By lights out, however, the track had dried – raising questions about the wisdom of Red Bull's decision. But according to Verstappen, there wasn’t a better option available:

“No, otherwise I would have had too much wheel spin. There was 8% less grip on the inside line, so I basically lost a car length straight away. That was the problem, and that’s why we started on softs and chose that low-grip setting off the line.”

Can Red Bull challenge McLaren again in Austin?

Austin presents a completely different challenge. After its recent form in Monza, Baku, and Singapore, Red Bull does seem to have made a step forward overall – though Verstappen stressed there are still “no guarantees” that the team will be competitive everywhere. The Circuit of the Americas features many medium-speed corners – the very type in which “McLaren killed Red Bull in Zandvoort”, to quote team boss Laurent Mekies.

“In Singapore, it was obviously better than that, but our medium-speed performance was still not good enough compared to McLaren,” Verstappen said. “We still need to make improvements, and hopefully we can do that here.”