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George Russell took a sly dig at Max Verstappen after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as he jokingly branded the Red Bull F1 outfit as "Team Verstappen". The Dutchman claimed his fourth race win of the 2025 season at Baku convincingly, finishing over 14 seconds ahead of Russell in second.
Max Verstappen's victory at the Azerbaijan GP on Sunday made it two wins in the last two races for the Red Bull driver. The Austrian team is now carrying significant momentum into the final seven rounds of the 2025 season.
But Baku was also a more than decent outing for Mercedes as George Russell secured the second spot while Kimi Antonelli returned to form with a P4 finish. This, coupled with Ferrari's struggles, meant that the Silver Arrows have now overtaken the Italian giants for P2 in the constructors' standings.
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During the post-race press conference on Sunday, Russell was asked by a member of the media if he was worried that Ferrari would soon overtake them again to take the second spot back in the table.
"I think right now with the current form, there’s as much chance of Max finishing ahead of us as there is Ferrari to be honest," replied Russell.
Verstappen then interjected while laughing to say that it would be Red Bull who could overtake them rather than just the driver himself. Russell then replied by taking a sly dig at the driver and team, as he joked:
"Yeah, team Verstappen!"
Max Verstappen has been responsible for 255 of Red Bull's 272 points in 2025. Yuki Tsunoda has struggled to get up to pace since arriving at the team in April, and Liam Lawson was also pointless in the two rounds he was at the team at the start of the season.
Tsunoda did manage to secure a P6 finish at Baku, his best result since joining the Milton Keynes-based team.
Max Verstappen contemplates outside chance of claiming 2025 drivers' title
Max Verstappen has claimed that he is only looking to take one race at a time and not think of the bigger picture with regard to the drivers' title. After the Azerbaijan GP, the 4x world champion is now 69 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri.
Speaking to the media after the race, Verstappen stated that he only aims to try and do his best up until the final race of the season.
"I don't rely on hope, so I personally don't think about it. I just go race by race, what I have been doing basically the whole season, just trying to do the best we can, try to score the most points that we can," said Verstappen. [via Sky Sports]
Then after Abu Dhabi, we'll know," he added.
In his interactions with the media, Verstappen had also claimed that 69 points is a very large points deficit with only seven rounds to go. He also added that he would need the two McLaren drivers to suffer some bad luck, while everything goes perfectly from his end, to secure the title.
