‘You can never write Max off’: Sauber boss Wheatley warns McLaren as Verstappen surge tightens title fight
Jonathan Wheatley has seen this movie before. The ex-Red Bull sporting director, now running the show at Sauber, tipped his cap to his former team — and issued a pointed reminder to McLaren — after Max Verstappen sliced a championship gap that looked insurmountable a month ago.
From 104 points behind Oscar Piastri, Verstappen is now just 40 adrift after a four-race blitz, with five Grands Prix and two Sprints still on the 2025 slate. The momentum flip has been stark enough that even Wheatley, who knows the inner workings at Milton Keynes better than most, admitted Red Bull will be “kicking themselves” that their performance leap didn’t arrive sooner.
“Red Bull’s a class outfit and Max is the best driver in the world,” Wheatley said to reporters in Austin. “They’ve clearly found something with the car — if anything, they’ll be annoyed they didn’t unlock it earlier. But with Max, you never, ever write him off.”
That’s not exactly radical analysis, but it lands differently when it comes from the man who stood in the garage for Verstappen’s rise. Wheatley worked with the Dutchman from his first laps in Red Bull colours through to his fourth world title, before departing for Sauber ahead of 2024. He’s watched Verstappen and Red Bull hustle their way out of trouble on countless Fridays and turn it into something fearsome by Saturday. The pattern looks familiar again.
The championship picture remains McLaren-orange at the top, with Piastri holding the lead and Lando Norris in the hunt, but Helmut Marko has already teased there’s “something up our sleeve” still to come from Red Bull. If that arrives before McLaren lock in their final MCL39 decisions, the rear-view mirrors in Woking will start to feel awfully small.
Andrea Stella, calm as ever, isn’t moving the goalposts yet. McLaren’s team principal said after Austin that only “mathematics” would force the team to favor one driver to seal the crown. That’s the line you expect from a camp that’s done most things right this season, right down to managing a dual title bid without stepping on its own toes.
Even Wheatley concedes the odds remain what they are. “As long as it’s numerically possible, it’s possible,” he said. “Is it probable? Normally not. But Max has a habit of rewriting the rules to suit himself — he’s done that his whole career.”
The next test is Mexico City, where Verstappen historically needs no invitation. He already owns the all-time win record at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez with five victories, and the circuit’s low-grip surface plus long straights have often let Red Bull flex its race-day efficiency. If the RB is genuinely back in a window Verstappen trusts, the grid knows what that looks like on Sundays: metronomic pace, a tyre life nobody else can find, and a radio that stays mostly silent.
None of this lets others off the hook. McLaren have been the season’s constant — quick everywhere, tidy on execution — and Piastri has worn the pressure of leading a title fight with a composure that belies the date on his passport. Norris, meanwhile, has been relentless on pace even when the points haven’t always fallen his way. That matters with Sprints still on the board and the stakes hiking up with every session.
But the sport is also about smell. And right now the paddock can smell a chase. Red Bull’s garage is perked up, Verstappen’s body language says he’s back in the groove, and people who know how this team operates — like Wheatley — are warning anyone listening that the reigning champion isn’t done.
There’s still a route for McLaren to keep this under control: lock down qualifying execution, box clever on Sundays, and avoid giving Verstappen a strategic invitation he doesn’t need. They’ve earned the right to manage the run-in from the front. But if Mexico tilts red and blue again, this title fight goes from intriguing to combustible in a hurry.
We’ve seen Verstappen bend probability before. Wheatley’s message is simple: don’t be surprised if he tries again.
