Lando Norris’ boss admits Max Verstappen’s threat to McLaren’s championship hopes

Lando Norris' McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, has acknowledged Max Verstappen's threat in the 2025 drivers' championship. The Dutchman has won the last two races back-to-back, with his most recent triumph coming in the recent Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Red Bull Formula 1 team failed to deliver a championship-worthy car (RB21) from the very start of the ongoing campaign, but from Round 16 onwards (Monza), Max Verstappen has been able to extract consistent performance out of it.

In the Italian Grand Prix, he triumphed in the event ahead of Lando Norris (P2) and Oscar Piastri (P3) by a margin of over 19 seconds, and during last week's tussle in Baku, Verstappen again won the race (as indicated above), when Norris managed an average P7 finish and Piastri came away with a DNF.

The reigning world champion has slightly closed the gap to Norris in the drivers' standings, who is currently in second place. After 17 rounds, Verstappen has amassed 255 points in comparison to the Brit's 299. Oscar Piastri is leading, having amassed 324.

Amid the resurgence from Verstappen in terms of performances, McLaren boss Andrea Stella is wary of the former playing a part in the 2025 drivers' championship fight. In line with this, the latter has recently added:

"A firm yes! Write it in capitals? Red Bull are a very serious contender to win races and very serious contender for the drivers' championship."

In the ongoing 2025 F1 season, only seven Grand Prix remain on the race calendar.

Max Verstappen's take on a late 2025 run at the F1 championship

F1 Grand Prix Of Azerbaijan 2025 - Source: Getty

While Andrea Stella views Max Verstappen as a major threat to his drivers in the championship fight, the Dutchman himself gave his take on the same following his triumph in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

In line with this, he added the following via an interaction with Sky Sports F1:

"It's seven races to go, and it's still 69 points. It's a lot. Basically, everything needs to go perfectly from my side, and then I need a bit of [bad] luck from their side [McLaren] as well. So, it's still very tough."

While stressing the improved performance output of his RB21, he added:

"It's just a combination of a lot of things that have gone better in the last few weeks. We have understood a bit more about the car."

Max Verstappen has amassed four consecutive drivers' championships since 2021. The ongoing ground-effect era has belonged to him, and he could pose a threat to the McLaren drivers in the 2025 title fight, given the RB21 performs consistently in the remaining seven races.

Next up on the race calendar is the Singapore Grand Prix, an event in which Verstappen has never secured a victory.