Max Verstappen shares worrying verdict for the 2025 F1 season as 9x champions anointed as the favorite

Max Verstappen bluntly declared that a win for Red Bull was out of the question at Melbourne and anointed McLaren as the team to beat. The 2024 F1 season ended with the Woking-based squad winning the title. The team built an impressive car, and with both drivers producing strong results, the team overhauled former champion Red Bull and won the title.

The team has seemingly carried the momentum into the 2025 F1 season, as the squad had a stellar preseason test. The car worked brilliantly on all three days, and the long runs have shown that there was a clear advantage over the chasing pack.

Red Bull, on the other hand, has not had the most positive test. The technical director, Pierre Wache, quickly admitted that the car had not performed as expected and that some work would still need to be done. Verstappen confirmed these fears by claiming that the car could not be expected to fight for a win in Melbourne.

In a pre-season scrum with Viaplay, the Dutch driver pulled back the curtain on the struggles that the team has had and said:

“[There is] work to do. I think McLaren is the favorite if you look at the lap times. And for us not everything went completely smoothly. On the other hand, I think we do have some ideas on how to improve the car. I’ve also spent a lot of time in the simulator – for example, yesterday – with the team."

Verstappen added:

“I don’t think we can compete for victory in Melbourne, but hopefully we will be able to make improvements within a few races. It’s never good enough, of course, but I think we expected a tiny bit more from it ourselves. After the test, you do have time to go through the data and come to certain conclusions. But as I said, I think we do need to improve some things.”

Guenther Steiner warns about 'angry' Max Verstappen

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner warned Red Bull about an issue with Max Verstappen if the car is not up to the mark. The Dutch driver did not take it well in 2024 when the car just stopped being competitive. This was followed by a few outbursts on team radio, with the most significant one being in Hungary.

Max Verstappen did recalibrate things and brought home the title afterward, but this was also a result of the early-season advantage that he had built. This season, he won't have that luxury, and Steiner was worried that it would be a task to manage Verstappen if he's not happy. He told CNN:

“I would say last year, when he started not to win, he reacted pretty aggressively. But then at some stage, I think he realized: ‘I need to be smart about this and just take home as many points as I can, even if I’m not winning a race.’"

He added:

“So we need to see which Max we get. But for sure, if he hasn’t got a good car where he can win, he will get very difficult to manage as well, I would say, because he will be vocal about it that he’s not happy. And an unhappy Max is not a nice Max, as we all know."

Max Verstappen is bidding to match Michael Schumacher's feat of five consecutive F1 titles. The Dutch driver is currently at four, and if he wins this season, he will have the joint longest title-winning streak in the sport.