in spite of Statement from McLaren’s Lando Norris – and he would be wise to be extremely cautious – currently it seems unlikely that Max Verstappen will win a fifth world championship this year. With three rounds remaining, Red Bull Racing’s resident genie is 49 points behind Norris and 25 points behind another McLaren driver, Oscar Piastri.
But Verstappen’s driving this season has been exceptional even by his own standards. He has always had a predatory instinct and bit the enraged crocodile. But this year, his ability to minimize mistakes is head and shoulders above any of his rivals, even as he made the most of the situation he was given and stayed on the edge for more laps than when he was driving a dominant car. There was no wobble in form like that seen with Norris and more recently with Piastri. No matter what Red Bull gives him, Verstappen’s mind seems to be made of granite these days.
To be fair to RBR, they have made impressive strides in evolving the RB21. Just before the Mexican Grand Prix, our F1 correspondent Chris Medland told me, “The fast car is still the MCL39, but what Red Bull has done is added a little bit of performance and solved the balance issue, so Max can attack more and at the same time take care of the tires. The fact that Yuki Tsunoda (of 2017) won points shows that the car has become a little more docile, which allows Max to do his job more consistently… Yes, we are definitely looking at something special than Max.In my opinion, if he wins, it will be his best title, but that is still a long way off. ”
Ed Straw, another regular F1 writer for RACER magazine, agreed with Medland’s ruling.
“I think you could say that the RB21 with Verstappen behind the wheel is on par with a McLaren depending on the track,” he said. “I would probably say that on circuits with long medium-speed corners, like Qatar and Zandvoort, McLaren is still better, but Red Bull has made a lot of progress and they accept that they are pushing forward with their development and moving a little bit further from 2026.”
These comments from our F1 guru come weeks after RBR’s disastrous performance in qualifying at Interlagos, where Verstappen and Tsunoda finished just 16th and 19th, the team’s worst grid result in 19 years. However, the team opted to break parc fermé rules and fit a new power unit into Verstappen’s car, giving him a better set-up window. If the team’s new amount was correct, they knew the penalty of starting in the pitlane would be worth it. It was unthinkable that Max would finish the race in 9th or 10th place. He is always striving for victory.
And it was proven. Yes, he benefited from a slow puncture early on, pitted under safety car conditions, ditched his softer Pirellis with a less desirable compound, and was able to spend most of the race on mediums, and having been an outsider in this championship race for so long, you could say he had nothing to lose. However, his run from the pit lane to third place was still a master class, impressing Norris, who believes that had the Red Bull ace started near the front of the field, he would have won for the sixth time this year.
How surprising is that? Well, as our Straw said to me, “I don’t think anyone but Max can come close to fighting for the title in the RB21.” From this, we can conclude that win or lose, Verstappen has pulled off one of the best title defenses in F1 history. The history of Formula 1 since the inception of the World Championship in 1950 has shown that in the face of adversity, genius may not be able to achieve ultimate glory, but it always emerges.
Some drivers were unlucky, with circumstances preventing them from having such an opportunity. After winning the 1952 and 1953 championships, Alberto Ascari left Ferrari to join Lancia, but the new D50 was not ready until the climax of the 1954 season, so he made a cameo appearance in only four of the eight races, driving a Maserati 250F, then sharing the drive in a Ferrari 625, and piloting the remarkable Lancia D50 in the final race. Here in Pedralbes, Ascari took pole position, set the fastest lap and took the lead on lap 10 when the clutch gave out. His efforts earned him 1.7 points that year. Such a meager tally was in no way representative of his undiminished talent.
At the 1954 Pedralves Spanish GP, Alberto Ascari in his Lancia D50 led Harry Schell’s Maserati 250F. Michael Tee/Getty Images
After dominating for two years in the Mercedes-Benz W196, Juan Manuel Fangio needed the help of generous Ferrari teammate Peter Collins to retain his title in ’56, but in ’57 the Argentine was at his best in his fourth season on the Maserati 250F, clinching his fifth and final world championship before loosening the throttle a bit in the final two races.
Jack Brabham took full advantage of Cooper’s main rivals’ belated move to rear-engined cars, winning four in a row and taking the 1960 championship even more convincingly than his first win the previous year. That run matched that of Jimmy Clark in his title pursuit three years later, but F1’s new gold standard may have surpassed it in 1964… From mid-season onwards, Clark was hardly able to finish. The Climax engine and its accessories disappointed me four times, and once on the rugged Zeltweg airfield, a broken halfshaft added to the long list of retirements. Despite the trouble in two of these races, he was still in the lead, and in the other he was fighting for the podium. The great Scotsman could only shrug his shoulders and accept that he had at least done all he could.
Of course, in ’65 he reigned supreme again, but ’66 was probably when Clark’s magical abilities were at their most effective. For the first six rounds, the 2-liter Climax engine was installed in the first year of the 3-liter regulation, and the Repco unit in the rear of the Brabham dominated that engine. Clark’s outstanding talent saw him take pole positions at both Monaco and the Nürburgring, and at Zandvoort he fought fiercely with ‘Black Jack’, even leading until his underpowered engine gave out. Finally, Clark took an unexpected victory at Watkins Glen in a Lotus 43 equipped with an overly complex 16-cylinder 3-litre BRM engine. The result required a DNF from two faster cars, but after a year of effort on an underpowered car, it was no more than he deserved.
Marchford’s limitations hampered Jackie Stewart’s success in 1970, but his skill was still there for all to see. Rainer Schlegelmilch/Getty Images
His compatriot Jackie Stewart, who won the 1969 championship in a Tyrrell-run Matra, would no doubt have issued a staunch defense of Ken Tyrrell had his relationship with the French manufacturer not begun with a dispute over engines. While Ken was forced to stick with the proven Cosworth DFV thanks to team funding from Ford, Matra urged him to go with the V12. The resulting split did not benefit either party in the short term. Tyrrell had to drive the elusive March 701 for most of the ’70 season before his car was perfected, but it quickly became clear that it was no match for the Ferrari 312B or Lotus 72. Still, a sprinkling of Stewart’s magic led to a resounding victory at Montjuïc Park, two runner-up finishes and three pole positions. When he also won pole on his Tyrrell 001 debut in Canada, one could only sigh that this would happen…
Matra may also regret letting Tyrrell go. Although Jean-Pierre Beltoise was not in the same league as Stewart the previous year, he was still clearly superior to JYS’s successor Henri Pescarolo in 1970. During that time, they earned three third place finishes and finished 9th and 12th in the championship. Stewart was fifth.
Emerson Fittipaldi won the world championship with Lotus in 1972 and successfully defended his crown in 1973. Yes, his three wins came in the first four races, and no, he was beaten 11-4 by new teammate Ronnie Peterson on a flying lap in qualifying. However, there is an oft-repeated myth that Fittipaldi and Peterson lost out on the championship by taking points from each other. It’s as if Emo would have retained the title if Colin Chapman had imposed team orders…or as if they had chosen to leave the inexplicably inadequate Dave Walker in ’73. That’s simply not true. First, it was rare for both Lotus 72s to finish the race. Only in the Monza race, where Stewart took his third and final crown, had Ronnie been in a position to concede victory and help Fittipaldi’s hopes, he would have only picked up three more points, leaving the Brazilian still far behind Stewart’s year-end results. No, no, what dashed the hopes of the Lotus drivers was a season in which Stewart retired just once, Fittipaldi had four DNFs and Peterson had six DNFs.
In terms of heroism, no one can match Niki Lauda’s title defense in 1976. Getty Images
Niki Lauda’s 1976 campaign resumed where his glorious ’75 quest ended – in victory lane, and in the first nine rounds, the Ferrari driver claimed five wins and three podiums. He then suffered a near-death experience at the Nürburgring, forcing him to miss two more races. He returned to Monza in tears, his scars still oozing, as McLaren’s James Hunt cut his points lead from 23 points to just two. That Italian Grand Prix saw Lauda finish a brave fourth place, forcing Hunt to retire, but the five-point difference would soon be boosted further by McLaren’s appeal for a DQ failure at the British Grand Prix, but it was not enough now that the Ferrari 312T2 had been replaced at the summit by a McLaren M23.
Hunt took pole position and won at Mosport, but Lauda dropped from sixth on the grid due to handling difficulties and finished eighth. At Watkins Glen, Hunt once again turned pole position into victory, with Lauda moving from fifth to third despite being a minute behind the winner. There was no doubting Niki’s own contribution – he continued to dominate race-winning and well-regarded teammate Clay Regazzoni – but somehow he felt like he was on the back foot, despite arriving at the final race at Fuji with a three-point lead.
Even without the monsoon and fog conditions that greeted the team on race day, Lauda might not have been able to retain his crown. If the top three on the grid – Mario Andretti, Hunt and Lauda – had held their positions at the end of the race, he would have led by one point. If Hunt had taken Andretti, the Brits would have won by two points. Instead, as is well known, Hunt recovered from the puncture and won by one point, taking a lapped third place behind the Tyrrells of Andretti and Patrick Depailler. Lauda, on the other hand, felt that the organizers’ decision to start the race in such poor track conditions showed the same lack of visibility that he had encountered with the green drop, and retired after two laps. Nikki remained true to her decision to withdraw until the very end. As expected. And it remained one of the bravest title defenses in F1 history.
Alan Jones and Nelson Piquet had little in common other than being ace F1 drivers, but history shows these rivals had something else in common. Each followed a season in which they won the world championship with arguably better personal performances, but their hopes were dashed mainly by car defects. Jones led his superior Williams (FW07 in the first race, then FW07B) to a total of five wins and the title in 1980, while matching his superior teammate Carlos Reutemann in qualifying pace and beating him on most race days. The pair were separated on the final points by Brabham’s Piquet.
In 1981, Jones became even more formidable in the race, even though Reutemann often had a lap pace advantage, but the results didn’t show that. Jones won in Long Beach, and Reutemann continued to win in the rain in Rio without following his team’s instructions, which did even more damage to their already troubled relationship than it hurt Jones’ title chances. What killed them was that while he was leading in Zolder, his car jumped out of gear and pushed him into the barrier. A fuel pickup problem dropped him from first to second in Monaco, and from first to out of the points at Hockenheim. His own failures when leading in Jarama. And he was the innocent victim of a multi-vehicle accident in Silverstone. Piquet was crowned champion by just four points…and Reutemann, who finished between them, appeared to have chosen defeat over title glory in the finale in the Caesars Palace parking lot, on a day when he only needed to go home a few places ahead of the physically weaker Piquet. Jones had decided to retire, but he led the same Williams to an overwhelming victory.
Some consider Piquet’s 1981 title a bit of a stroke of luck, but his dedication to curing BMW’s growing pains with a new turbo engine helped him maintain his position. In 1982, Ferrari was turned upside down by tragedy and trauma, while Renault, despite being in its sixth season with turbo engines, still failed to achieve a third-place finish. As Keke Rosberg proved, with a great chassis and a natural-breathing, reliable Cosworth, it was ripe for a title shot. Still, Pique would at least reap the benefits of his efforts with title glory in 1983.
If Rosberg found it difficult to tackle turbos in ’82, at the power-hungry Monza, where he qualified 3.3 seconds from pole position, he at least had an efficient ground effects car. In 1983, the FIA mandated a flat underfloor to control cornering speed, making Rosberg’s task almost impossible and he lost more than six seconds at Monza. However, the Finn never accepted his fate and instead strangled FW08C. He took pole position for the season opener, the last for a naturally aspirated car until turbos were banned in 1989. He showed his true potential in the tight twisties, dancing out of the field on slick tires on wet roads in Monaco to take a stunning victory, and finishing runner-up in Detroit. His efforts kept him sharp until he was finally given a Williams Honda turbo to pedal at the final race of the season at Kyalami. There he qualified 6th and finished 5th in the debut of the chassis and engine combo. So, despite being disqualified for a push start in the pit lane in Rio, Rosberg still managed to take an impressive 5th place in the championship, despite having a 300hp deficit in qualifying and around 150hp on race day. Remarkable.
Keke Rosberg may have been literally powerless to defend the number one title in 1983, but that didn’t stop him from putting on a great show on a regular basis. Getty Images
Rosberg partnered Alain Prost at McLaren in 1986, giving him a front row seat to the next great championship defense. Prost had come close in the previous two seasons, finally winning in 1985, but shortly into the new season he found himself losing out to Ayrton Senna’s Lotus Renault 98T and Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet’s Williams Honda FW11. The MP4/2C was in its third season, but its TAG-Porsche lacked the firepower of the Renault and the combination of firepower and fuel economy of the Honda. Still, Prost won four races that season, backed by seven other podiums, and dominated the points race with a dramatic finale in Adelaide.
In his first year at Ferrari in 1990, Prost matched his current teammate Mansell in qualifying, making the most of the beautifully handling Ferrari 641 and performing at his best despite the V12 not having the power of Senna and Gerhard Berger’s McLaren Honda V10. Prost also made almost zero mistakes on race day, despite several mistakes made by his main rival. However, Senna’s revenge at Suzuka dashed Prost’s hopes of becoming Ferrari’s first drivers’ champion since Jody Scheckter in 1979.
In 1991, Mansell returned to Williams and it was Senna’s turn to battle against adversity, piloting the sophisticated FW14 written by Adrian Newey. This FW14 proved faster and better handling than the new McLaren-Honda MP4/6. However, Nigel was unable or unable to take advantage of this advantage early in the season, allowing Ayrton to take advantage of it and record four consecutive wins. For the remainder of the season, Mansell and Riccardo Patrese proved their superiority in equipment, but Senna was able to take two further wins and even clinch his third title one race early, capping off arguably his best season yet.
In 1994, Michael Schumacher defeated Damon Hill to win the championship despite being disqualified in one race and suspended in two, but it wasn’t until the Benetton team switched from a Ford V8 to a Renault V10, the same as the Williams team, that everyone realized what a wonder he was. The B195 was probably no match for the Newey-designed Williams FW17 of Hill and David Coulthard, but the British pair won five races that year, with Schumacher claiming nine, despite losing twice to Hill.
When Schumacher won his first world championship in a Ferrari in 2000, he always had the best car and smartest tactician at hand to defend his crown one after another. But a major setback occurred in 2005, when the F2005 proved aerodynamically problematic and Bridgestone appeared to have lost out to Michelin. Fernando Alonso/Renault and Kimi Raikkonen/McLaren took most of the wins, with Alonso scoring more than twice as many points as Schuey. But Alonso’s defense in 2006 was even better. For now, he had to deal with Schumacher in full force. Aldo Costa’s Ferrari 248 – the first V8-engined F1 Ferrari since 1964 – was a gem. Nevertheless, Alonso took the win after the pair won seven races each. The No. 1 Renault R26 backed up its winning tally with seven second-place finishes, but Schumacher finished third with a time of 4.1 seconds, leaving him 13 points short of dethroning his younger rival.
In 2005, F1 fans witnessed the spectacle of two grandmasters and their teams coming out on top as Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher battled it out with Renault’s Fernando Alonso. Charles Coates/Getty Images
It’s hard to see him defending his classic title in recent years, as the champion has tended to drive dominant cars year after year, including Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen. Perhaps Max’s RB20 wasn’t the best car of 2024, meaning Red Bull only finished third in the constructors’ championship, so you could argue that last year’s defense of his territory was the best ever. However, the car was still designed by the retired Newey, and RBR’s drop to third in the points was largely due to the pairing of Verstappen and an underperforming Sergio Perez being less rounded than McLaren’s Norris/Piastri or Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc/Carlos Sainz.
This year it’s more clear. Our man Medland makes his optimistic or realistic predictions for Verstappen’s win this weekend in this week’s RACER Debrief (see below). But win or lose, it is certain that Max’s 2025 campaign produced one of the greatest championship defenses in F1 history.
