3 reasons why Max Verstappen is still the favorite to win the 2025 F1 championship

As the first F1 preseason test came to an end, Max Verstappen and Red Bull's initial verdict was not great. First, it was the technical director, Pierre Wache, who admitted that the car was not behaving the way the team had expected it to.

Then it was Max Verstappen whose initial verdict was the claim that Red Bull would not be fighting for the win in Melbourne. This belief has been reinforced recently with Verstappen's recent interview doubling down on this claim.

According to the preseason test, McLaren should have the fastest car at the start of the season. At the same time, with Lando Norris having experience of being in a title fight with Max Verstappen under him, he's more prepared.

According to a lot of the bookies, Lando Norris starts as the pre-season favorite. Well, in our view, Max Verstappen still continues to be the driver who should be at the top of the list of favorites to win the 2025 F1 title. Here's why.

#1 McLaren is not out of reach in terms of performance

A lot of pundits and experts have made this big claim about McLaren being the benchmark in F1 after the preseason test. While there is truth to that, there's more to this that should be delved into deeper. Is McLaren the fastest car on the grid right now? After looking at the tests, it's safe to say that there is a high probability of that being the case.

There's a problem, however, and that problem is the fact that the gap between the fastest car and the chasing pack is not much. We're looking at a gap of around 2-3 tenths. While it is meaningful for sure, this is not the kind of gap that cannot be overhauled.

At the same time, this is not the kind of gap where the drivers cannot make a difference. In the last year of a set of regulations that are seemingly very prescriptive in nature, the field isn't expected to be split massively in terms of performance gaps, and this should exactly be the reason why Red Bull is not out of contention just yet.

#2 The Max Verstappen-Red Bull race execution and operational superiority

Moving further on the point of the performance gap not being much between the frontrunners, the key differentiator this season as well is going to be the driver and the team's operational unit. Lest we forget, post Miami last season, McLaren had the fastest car on the grid.

Even then, if we look at the points accumulated by Max Verstappen during this period and compare them with Lando Norris, the Dutch driver outscored the Brit by 10 points. How did he achieve that? By being relentless in terms of extracting the best result from the car in every race and making the most of every opportunity with a super-efficient operational team in Red Bull.

Max Verstappen already has a blueprint in place that he has followed to the last detail and has been successful with it. All he has to do in 2025 is repeat it.

#3 The lack of title battle acumen of rivals

McLaren showed last season that it did not have the preparation in place to fight for the title. Charles Leclerc is yet to be involved in a year-long title battle. We can put George Russell in a similar category as well. To add to this, Max Verstappen is his team's sole priority. He is the number 1 driver in his team, and the entire squad will make sure from the very first race that everything is optimized for the Dutch driver.

For the other three contenders, this is not the case. Charles Leclerc has an F1 legend in Lewis Hamilton, who could potentially beat him as well. Lando Norris has Oscar Piastri, while George Russell has Kimi Antonelli, who is a complete unknown. When the gaps are this small between cars, everything needs to be optimized for the long run. That's where Max Verstappen has a massive advantage over the rest of his competitors.

When you add all these factors, you realize that if there is one driver who holds the edge over all of the competitors, it is undoubtedly Max Verstappen, and that is precisely why he goes into the season as the championship favorite.