2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[venkyhere]

Who would've thought Max's titles chances were in jeopardy because of his incidents with the Mercedes

His red mist in Spain cost him. Lost 9 points.

If we are to look at it that way, all of McLaren's 'lost points' were because of their own (drivers/team) mistakes. All of the 'lost points' by Max - there was barcelona where both driver&team faltered ; and two instances where it wasn't driver/team's mistake :
- the final lap VSC at Mexico
- getting taken out by Antonelli in Austria.
Thos points would have easily given him WDC.

Anyway, no point going behind 'what if' scenarios, it was written by the racing gods that Norris has to win WDC in 2025, they made a super-winner car and despite all the goof ups by their strategy and their drivers, he did a good job overall. Credit where credit is due.

[PlatinumZealot]

Good Job Red Bull. But Scumacher's 5X consecutive WDC record is safe for the foreseeable future.

[euv2]

[Sergej]

[FNTC]

Number 69 incoming

[Raleigh]

Max wants 3 which was also his original pick except the Dany Ric already had 3. Hence 33.

Problem is 3 is still locked up until the end of 2026. So maybe he will pick 33 for one year or try to get 3 approved early.

[selvam_e2002]

I read somewhere that Vettel got no 1 and lost his WDC and now Max..... interesting....

The good thing I like about him is that he is not taking any thing serious.....

[maxxer]

Verstappen should win driver of the year 8 victories in F1 + 1 GT3

[FittingMechanics]

Who would've thought Max's titles chances were in jeopardy because of his incidents with the Mercedes

His red mist in Spain cost him. Lost 9 points.

If we are to look at it that way, all of McLaren's 'lost points' were because of their own (drivers/team) mistakes. All of the 'lost points' by Max - there was barcelona where both driver&team faltered ; and two instances where it wasn't driver/team's mistake :
- the final lap VSC at Mexico
- getting taken out by Antonelli in Austria.
Thos points would have easily given him WDC.

Anyway, no point going behind 'what if' scenarios, it was written by the racing gods that Norris has to win WDC in 2025, they made a super-winner car and despite all the goof ups by their strategy and their drivers, he did a good job overall. Credit where credit is due.

Norris engine going boom is not a team mistake. Also Norris got taken out in Austin sprint (by Piastri).

My point was that Verstappen had that red mist moment which is uncharacteristic of him (he cost himself points). Usually he is very good at keeping inside the rules and has never give up mentality. In that Spain race he probably felt he had no chance at WDC and see where we are now.

Scary thing for me as a McLaren fan is that he will learn from this and not make that mistake again.

[venkyhere]

Norris engine going boom is not a team mistake. Also Norris got taken out in Austin sprint (by Piastri).

Mechanical reliability is indeed a team mistake. It has always been, no matter which team. Anyway, I hope you got my point.

[Vettel165]

Its done and dusted now, Mclaren should have this in the bag by at least 50-60 points, and yet we were here. Amazing comeback by Red Bull and Max. What more I can say, we were the best team in the last 15 years, getting that 8 titles. 4 with Seb and 4 with Max, getting a lot of joy from them both. Lets give them this one title and try again in 2026. Mega work by everyone, mark my words we will strike back in the next couple years with an another title. Mclaren had to wait 17 years for this, Ferrari for at least 18 years and I had to wait for 8 years after 2013.

Max 100% extracted more what was possible from the car in a lot of races and Mclaren making a lot of mistakes at the same time. There were at least 5 races in which Max shouldnt won, but he did, otherwise it wouldnt be even close. A fantastic work. Lets go to 2026 now with the new rules.

Cheers.

[Emag]

You can consider it bad luck, but there's plenty of dumb stuff McLaren has done this seasons that has cost their drivers points (ignoring here the driver error themselves).

- They didn't split strategies in Japan. They literally tried nothing to take the win away from Max.
- Didn't go for mediums in Q3 Canada when they were clearly the superior tire. Left their drivers on a bad track position even though pace was probably good enough for a P2 there.
- Made a fool out of themselves with the Italy "strategy". Totally nonsensical. Not only for going wayy longer than they should have in the first stint, but because they couldn't pit Lando safely first without risking track position for Oscar with Leclerc later.
- Baku, badly managed in Q3 for Lando, leaving him on used softs for the last run.
- Complete misscalculation in Vegas costing a double DSQ (without it, Abu Dhabi would have been almost a formality)
- Qatar, amateur hour not pitting in lap 7 on a safety car. Not only did they gift Max the win on a silver platter, but they cost Lando the podium as well. Net >10 points on Max's favor in one weekend alone just due to horrible execution.

You can look into decisive moments on Max's side as well, and I am sure people will point to Barcelona, but let's be honest here. Max was "gifted" a chance at the WDC. At under no circumstance should he have been in the game going into the final race had McLaren been more competent as a team (and again, ignoring the driver's mistakes and the fact that it took Lando forever to get comfortable with this car). If anything, it's mighty impressive that Max delivered pretty much the maximum result he could deliver from the moment his car was capable of challenging McLaren in Monza. Absolute machine.

[Vettel165]

You can consider it bad luck, but there's plenty of dumb stuff McLaren has done this seasons that has cost their drivers points (ignoring here the driver error themselves).

- They didn't split strategies in Japan. They literally tried nothing to take the win away from Max.
- Didn't go for mediums in Q3 Canada when they were clearly the superior tire. Left their drivers on a bad track position even though pace was probably good enough for a P2 there.
- Made a fool out of themselves with the Italy "strategy". Totally nonsensical. Not only for going wayy longer than they should have in the first stint, but because they couldn't pit Lando safely first without risking track position for Oscar with Leclerc later.
- Baku, badly managed in Q3 for Lando, leaving him on used softs for the last run.
- Complete misscalculation in Vegas costing a double DSQ (without it, Abu Dhabi would have been almost a formality)
- Qatar, amateur hour not pitting in lap 7 on a safety car. Not only did they gift Max the win on a silver platter, but they cost Lando the podium as well. Net >10 points on Max's favor in one weekend alone just due to horrible execution.

You can look into decisive moments on Max's side as well, and I am sure people will point to Barcelona, but let's be honest here. Max was "gifted" a chance at the WDC. At under no circumstance should he have been in the game going into the final race had McLaren been more competent as a team (and again, ignoring the driver's mistakes and the fact that it took Lando forever to get comfortable with this car). If anything, it's mighty impressive that Max delivered pretty much the maximum result he could deliver from the moment his car was capable of challenging McLaren in Monza. Absolute machine.

Amazing analysis, what more I can say. Its the reality.

[PierreW]

I can not even say that I am disappointed. Deep down I never expected Max to be champion this year, not with the car the McLaren team had the whole year which was so far ahead all the other teams.

What matter to me is that we all know that Max was the best driver this season, by far. Let's say Norris season is a solid 8/10, then Max season is a 10/10. What matter even more is the trajectory that the team found and the problems that the engineers solved. I admit I started to lose faith in the technical direction of the team and in the all the development work but they finally turned it around. It 's a positive note for next year.

Now fingers crossed that the engine does not send the team in the third tier.

[mwillems]

Max of course always has the benefit of getting the most points in his team, with no one taking them away from him and the benefit of a second team to manage pit gaps and create DRS trains. It's fairly likely that without that, the WDC would have been wrapped up a long time ago and hence all of the spotlight on the Mclaren team and the way they run things. Like many, I don't look upon it the same way and love the way this Mclaren does things.

They make mistakes, of course, but they continue to improve as they have done in every area and no doubt the drivers will improve once more and soon enough we will have also taken Will Courtenay, so hopefully the scales will further tip in Mclaren's favour and we can fight for a third WCC crown in a row next year.