Max Verstappen smells blood again — and McLaren can hear the drip.
Red Bull’s world champion has hacked his way back into the title conversation with consecutive wins at Monza and Baku, trimming a triple-digit deficit to something that suddenly looks manageable. After Zandvoort, Verstappen was 104 points adrift of Oscar Piastri. Two Sundays later, the gap is 69. He’s also narrowed Lando Norris’ hold on second from 70 points to 44. With seven Grands Prix and three Sprints left — 199 points on the table — the fight is still on.
And right when the calendar lands somewhere Red Bull typically hasn’t loved, Singapore, Verstappen is starting in clean air. He’ll launch from the front row alongside polesitter George Russell, with Piastri behind in third and Norris back in fifth. The margin to pole was 0.182s, though the lap wasn’t without drama: “You can thank your mate for that,” Gianpiero Lambiase told Verstappen over the radio after a moment in qualifying that Red Bull felt was untidy around a McLaren. The stewards didn’t pursue it, Verstappen banked P2, and McLaren’s orange cars will spend the start looking at his rear wing.
Martin Brundle, watching the momentum swing on Sky F1, put it plainly: Verstappen’s in their heads. “We were wondering, was it just the last two circuits — low downforce, low tyre degradation? Have they really energised the aerodynamics on that Red Bull?” he said. “We know how good Max is. The team seems calm. He’s driving beautifully. They’ve certainly improved the car. And you know why — he just smells an outside chance of a championship… he’s now living in the heads of the McLaren players.”
Singapore was billed as Red Bull’s litmus test after a summer that occasionally flattered the RB21’s weaknesses. So far, they’ve passed with something close to flying colours. The big step came with a new floor at Monza; the next layer arrived this weekend with a fresh front wing and cooling changes at Marina Bay. The effect, up and down the garage, has been felt.
There’s also been a quiet, consistent thread to Red Bull’s resurgence: they’re finding performance over the weekend, not just bringing it. Guest pundit Jamie Chandhok reckoned the team’s feedback loop is biting harder than rivals’. “They’re bringing upgrades, but also they’re finding something in development across the race weekend with driver feedback. I think the combination of that is allowing them to make bigger steps than a lot of the other teams.”
That’s what makes this charge dangerous for McLaren. Piastri has been the season’s sharpest finisher and still leads the championship, but Verstappen now sits between them on pure form, and momentum is a trickster. If the title remains a stretch — at 69 points, it is — Verstappen can still blow up the Woking dream of a 1–2 in the Drivers’ standings. He’s already chiselled Norris’ cushion down to 44. Another Singapore podium, particularly with a papaya car stuck in traffic, and that pressure ratchets up.
There’s more psychology in this than anyone lets on. Verstappen’s cadence has changed; he’s pushing without looking ragged, energised without forcing it. The RB21 looks less finicky on turn-in and kinder on its rears as the stints roll, and he’s banking the kind of laps that bully a pit wall into indecision. McLaren know it. Piastri’s been bulletproof cool, Norris typically scrappy and quick, but they’ve suddenly got a Red Bull in their mirrors that doesn’t fade after Lap 10.
Sunday at Marina Bay will hinge on familiar margins: track position, a Safety Car that appears like a streetlight out of the haze, and whether Red Bull’s updated car holds its balance in heavy traffic and rising temperatures. If Verstappen clears Russell at the start, it becomes a very different afternoon for the points leaders. If he doesn’t, the undercut and tyre offsets will do the talking.
Either way, the champion has rejoined the conversation with perfect timing, and the paddock can feel the shift. He doesn’t need to win every weekend to make life hard for McLaren. He just needs to stay where he is — right inside their headspace.
