Guenther Steiner insists putting brakes on Max Verstappen’s championship challenge talk

Red Bull star Max Verstappen came into the 2025 F1 season as the defending champion. However, McLaren had overtaken Red Bull in the performance index over the winter, with the Papaya team boasting a dominant MCL39. Nonetheless, the Dutchman won two consecutive races and was suggested to be back in the title fight. Former F1 Boss Guenther Steiner came out and put an end to Verstappen's championship challenge talks.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull struggled since the start of the season, as the Dutchman struggled with the balance of the car. The four-time F1 champion managed to win a couple of races before the summer break, but faced a tough few races as he retired at Austria and finished P9 at the Belgian GP.

Red Bull and Max Verstappen found pace within the RB21 after the summer break, as the Dutchman finished P2 at Zandvoort, followed by back-to-back wins at Monza and Baku. The team brought a floor upgrade after the break, which seemingly has put Verstappen back in the title fight.

F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan - Source: Getty

The Red Bull driver is now only 69 points behind Oscar Piastri as the Australian retired from the Azerbaijan GP. Given the recent form of Verstappen in the RB21, many suggest that Max Verstappen is back in the title fight. However, former Haas F1 team boss Guenther Steiner recently came out on the Red Flags podcast and put an end to the Dutchman title challenge talks. He said,

“I don't think Max will win a lot more races this year. I think the McLarens will,He might not do anything wrong, but I think the McLaren is just a better car. McLaren had one bad race.We all agree on one thing. Max is the best. We all agree on that. But I would wait to see how good the upgrade is for a 'normal race track'.”

“These are high-speed tracks, and they are different. So see if it works, if it has got the same effect on a normal track, because on the normal track, the McLaren is the best car. So let's wait a little bit,” added Steiner

---

Max Verstappen details the key factor behind his recent winning form

At the beginning of the season, Max Verstappen was heard on the radio complaining about the balance of the RB21 and not getting the tires in the working window. To sort the same, the Red Bull kept making changes over the practice, and even making changes going into the qualifying.

Max Verstappen came out and suggested that Red Bull no longer has to do so as they've successfully learnt some things about the car, which is helping the car run in the optimal window.

“We don’t need to try so many things with the car anymore. Not having to make those radical changes during a race weekend makes it much more enjoyable,” said Verstappen (via Motorsport)

“Yes. And that’s down to all the things we’ve learned about this car,” said Max when asked if the car is now in the optimal working window

"We’ve had a lot of discussions about how we can improve things and how we can test certain elements. In the end it turns out that we’ve handled that quite well,” he added

The Red Bull driver will need to outscore Oscar Piastri by an average of 10 points for the remaining seven races to win his fifth consecutive title.