Max Verstappen Branded The “True 2025 F1 Champion” over Lando Norris

Dutch driver Tom Coronel boldly claimed that Max Verstappen deserved to win the 2025 F1 title over Lando Norris.

Max Verstappen Branded The “True 2025 F1 Champion” over Lando Norris

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris (via Getty)

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Lando Norris won the 2025 driver’s title against Max Verstappen controversially. The Briton won the title by only two points, and many people accused him of winning simply because of the British Bias at McLaren.

Though Oscar Piastri refuted any such claims, many still believed that the Aussie was put at a disadvantage against Norris. Now, amid the hatred towards the reigning world champion, Dutch motorsport driver Tom Coronel has branded Verstappen the true champion of the 2025 season.

Max Verstappen was trailing the championship lead by over 104 points at one point in the 2025 season. However, Verstappen achieved a stellar comeback in performance and achieved ten consecutive podium finishes in the final half of the season, with eight total wins to his name over the year.

This helped him cut down the deficit to just two points, which could’ve been covered if it weren’t for the Qatar GP controversy relating to Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris. Regardless of the back and forth on the what-ifs, Lando Norris performed when it mattered in the 2025 season and thus won the driver’s title.

However, Tom Coronel doesn’t feel that way and believes that Max Verstappen is still the people’s champion. Coronel boldly claimed that both he and the press believed Verstappen to be the true champion.

Tom Coronel clarified that his strong sentiments weren’t because of being Dutch-biased towards Max Verstappen. Rather, Verstappen’s instincts to not give up and have a killer mentality on the F1 grid helped him win the people’s vote on the matter. Moreover, the four-time champion pulled everything together at Red Bull amid their messy state in the 2025 season.

Both I and the international press say: the only real true champion for me is Max, That is not because I am a Dutchman, but purely because you have seen him grow rock hard. The instinct not to give up, the killer mentality, I think is a very strong one in that. And the fact that he got the team back on track, I think that’s also a very important one. It was a bit messy at Red Bull. 

Tom Coronel said via RacingNews365.

Max Verstappen made the final half of the 2025 season “not boring”

McLaren were believed to have both championships in the 2025 season in their pocket with ease following their dominance mid-way through the year. However, Max Verstappen achieved a shocking comeback and turned everything around.

Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris (via F1)
Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris (via F1)

Because of Verstappen, the title battle dragged on until the last race of the year, and gave people hope. As such, Tom Coronel further highlighted that the 28-year-old helped the sport as well with his performances.

Tom Coronel recalled that everyone thought that the 2025 season would be boring as McLaren would achieve an easy double championship win. He added that no one was interested in this story and wouldn’t have enjoyed the season from that point forward. However, Max Verstappen came in with a metaphorical crowbar and broke down the doors to the championship fight and put on a lot of pressure on the McLarens.

At least we saw the fight until the end of the season. We thought the second part was going to be very boring. McLaren takes the drivers’ title just as easily: it will be Piastri or Norris, we’ll hear it. We weren’t interested in who it was going to be. And then another Verstappen comes in with a crowbar, breaking down the door every time to build the pressure on those guys.

Tom Coronel noted.

Certainly, it can go on forever about how things could have played out differently in the 2025 season to help Max Verstappen become the world champion. But Lando Norris simply drove better when it mattered the most and put forth consistency all year round. As such, he rightfully won the title at the end and put an end to one of the most exciting seasons in the history of Formula 1.

Read More: Helmut Marko Declares “Perfect” Max Verstappen Doesn’t Need Him to Thrive at Red Bull