Red Bull Breaks Silence on Max Verstappen’s 2025 Title Chances After Azerbaijan GP Win

Red Bull Team Principal Laurent Mekies spoke up on Max Verstappen's championship prospects after two back-to-back dominant victories.

Red Bull Breaks Silence on Max Verstappen’s 2025 Title Chances After Azerbaijan GP Win

Max Verstappen, Helmut Marko, Laurent Mekies (via Red Bull)

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Max Verstappen has shocked the Formula 1 paddock in the past two races. A couple of weeks ago, the Dutch driver was nowhere close to fighting for wins. However, Verstappen has gone on to dominate the Italian and Azerbaijan GPs. This has sparked speculation whether the reigning world champion can defend his title this year. Now, Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies has downplayed such a possibility.

The four-time world champion went winless for months after taking two victories at the start of this season. The Italian GP was a wake-up call as Max Verstappen won the race by a 20-second gap to second-placed Lando Norris. It was also the fastest victory in the history of Formula 1. Verstappen continued his dominance at Baku last weekend to take the sixth grand slam of his career. With 7 races to go, the Dutch driver now trails behind championship leader Oscar Piastri by 69 points.

Laurent Mekies made it clear that Red Bull was not looking directly at the title prospects of its star driver. Rather, Milton Keynes was taking things on a race-by-race basis, without focusing on the standings. Interestingly, Max Verstappen revealed a similar approach post-race in Baku. Moreover, Mekies admitted that the Austrian squad was not even concerned about the constructors’ standings. After all, Verstappen has scored almost all of the team’s points this year. Red Bull sits in fourth place in the championship.

I tell you how we look at it – we really take it race by race, so we don’t look at the championship positions. We don’t even look at it from a constructors’ perspective. Yes, it’s nice to look at the battle for second place in the constructors’, but we take it step by step in terms of understanding of the car, in terms of unlocking lap time of the car.

Laurent Mekies said, as quoted by RacingNews365

Max Verstappen and Red Bull ready to ‘tackle’ Singapore GP

The Singapore GP is one of the more challenging tracks on the F1 calendar. Red Bull Motorsport Consultant Dr. Helmut Marko even stated that the team may start dreaming of the title if Max Verstappen wins at Marina Bay this year. If the Dutchman does have a good outing in Singapore, it could mean that the RB21 is finally on-par, if not quicker than McLaren at this stage of the season.

Laurent Mekies and Max Verstappen (via Red Bull)
Laurent Mekies and Max Verstappen (via Red Bull)

Laurent Mekies insisted that Red Bull was not focused on its pace gap to any rival in track. Instead, the team was focused on understanding how it could tackle the challenge of the Singapore GP. Mekies asserted that Max Verstappen and the crew have learnt a lot in recent races, and would be looking to maximize performance at Marina Bay. Though the team will likely only take calculated risks.

The way we look at the next race is not by looking at the gap to whoever. Singapore is going to be a different challenge. How do we tackle it? How do we apply learnings to that? How much of that we think can be tested there and how much risk do you want to take?

Laurent Mekies added

Certainly, the Orange Army is once again hoping to see Max Verstappen take victory. The four-time world champion could firmly place himself back in the championship fight if he manages to emerge victorious at Marina Bay. Though this will be far from easy, considering that McLaren will only bounce back harder in the next race. Thus, fans can expect to see a thriller at this year’s Singapore GP.

Read More: Max Verstappen Admits Red Bull ‘Swinging Left and Right’ in 2025 After Azerbaijan GP win