Ex-F1 Champion Bets on Max Verstappen to Beat ‘Under Pressure’ McLaren Drivers for 2025 title

The driver’s title battle in the 2025 season is far from over despite just six races left until completion. Oscar Piastri is currently leading the battle with a 22-point lead over his teammate Lando Norris. Moreover, Max Verstappen has made a shocking return in the mix for fighting for the title by the end of the season. Now, the 1997 F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve predicts Verstappen to win the title.

McLaren has clearly emerged as the most dominant team on the grid, especially after winning the constructors’ title at the recent Singapore GP. Regardless, Max Verstappen has managed to cut the massive point deficit to Oscar Piastri down to just 63 points now. As such, Verstappen will definitely be a tough contender for the driver’s title towards the end of the 2025 season.

Despite McLaren being dominant on the grid, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are still likely to be under immense pressure, especially because of the intra-team battle brewing. Moreover, the team rules fiasco within Woking is likely to cause their doom by the end of the season. Keeping in mind these conditions, Jacques Villeneuve predicted that neither of the McLaren drivers would win the driver’s title.

Jacques Villeneuve made a bold and shocking claim that Max Verstappen would win the 2025 driver’s title. He asserted that it would be Verstappen’s greatest championship win if he manages to win the title this year.

The Canadian pointed out that both McLaren drivers were suffering a lot because of the pressure on them. Villeneuve insisted that the Papaya Squad needed to wake up and help the two drivers achieve the best results possible to maintain their championship lead.

[Max] Verstappen, And it will be his best world championship.  The two McLaren drivers are suffering too much from the pressure. They need to wake up.

Jacques Villeneuve told La Gazetta dello Sport.

Mika Hakkinen disagrees with Jacques Villeneuve’s bold claims about Max Verstappen

Even though Max Verstappen has already cut down a substantial amount of the point deficit, Mika Hakkinen believes that it wouldn’t be as easy as ABC for the Dutchman to further cut down the 63-point gap. Hakkinen did not hesitate to counter Jacques Villeneuve and make a claim against what the latter believed for the driver’s title this season.

Mika Hakkinen asserted that a McLaren driver would win the driver’s title, be it Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri. Hakkinen raised surety over the fact that the team would interfere with team orders and avoid trouble in the final races. The “Flying Finn” declared that Norris had the advantage of experience over Piastri and could defeat even Max Verstappen for the title win this season.

I have to say McLaren, of course, The team will certainly give the drivers orders to avoid trouble.  They’re both very good, Lando has much more experience, which counts for a lot. But he also scores fewer points. So I don’t know, one of the two.

Mika Hakkinen told told La Gazetta dello Sport.

The 2025 season of Formula 1 has remained highly interesting and competitive, regardless of the championship winner by the end. Certainly, it would be one of the greatest comebacks in the standings if Max Verstappen manages to win the title at this point in the season.

Now, time will tell if the Dutchman can bridge the seemingly massive gap against Piastri and defeat him in the driver’s title. For now, the reigning world champion is aiming to take the season race-by-race.

Read More: Martin Brundle Exposes Christian Horner’s ‘Toto Wolff-Ish Demand’ for F1 return

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