Ralf Schumacher says 2025 turned Max Verstappen into something more than just a serial winner. It gave him an aura — the kind his brother Michael once carried into every garage.
It’s a big claim, but not a wild one when you trace Verstappen’s arc. One hundred and four points down after his home race, written off by plenty, then a summer that flipped the season on its head. From Zandvoort onward, Verstappen didn’t miss a podium. Six Grands Prix wins, a Sprint triumph, relentless point-hauling — and, in the end, two points shy of the title as Lando Norris sealed his first World Championship. Even in defeat, it felt like Verstappen had moved the needle on what a team leader looks like under pressure.
“Max didn’t just drive quickly,” Ralf told Sport1. “He created unity. He led. He inspired.” In his view, Red Bull’s mid-season turbulence — the Christian Horner exit after the British Grand Prix, the car falling away, the internal noise that followed — forced Verstappen into a different gear. Schumacher reckons the decision on Horner came late, the chaos lingered, and once Red Bull finally steadied the RB, Verstappen’s influence pulled the operation into line.
“What emerged was remarkable,” Schumacher continued, highlighting a new cohesion “especially with Laurent Mekies and the engineering team around Max.” He went further, arguing Verstappen’s ability to wring performance from imperfect machinery was stark next to others — name-checking Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson — but insisted the bigger story was the collective push. That, he says, is where Max began to resemble Michael: not simply crushing lap times, but getting people to “walk through fire.”
It’s telling that Verstappen himself still points to Horner as someone who did exactly that for him. The pair remain in regular contact, Verstappen has said, swapping messages on race weekends and even on holidays. There’s clearly a bond there that a contract termination can’t scrub out. You don’t win what they’ve won together without battle scars and loyalty.
By Abu Dhabi, the Red Bull inner circle looked different again. Helmut Marko, the team’s long-time senior advisor and the guiding hand of its driver programme, bowed out after the season. For Ralf Schumacher, the timing made sense. “Everything has its moment,” he said, noting the grind of global travel at Marko’s age and the changing shape of Red Bull’s leadership. He also suggested Verstappen no longer needs a minder in the garage: the driver who nearly dragged back a 104-point deficit is fully formed as the team’s compass.
None of this will ease the sting of losing a title by a margin you could measure with two fingers. But the broader picture matters. According to the 2025 Formula One World Championship records, Norris is the champion, McLaren finally converted momentum into silverware, and Verstappen — after a fraught, messy middle third of the year — still turned up every Sunday with the authority of a man who expects to decide races. Only this time, the story was as much about what he built around him as what he did in the cockpit.
The comparison to Michael is loaded, and Ralf would know. Different eras, different machinery, same basic superpower: make a team believe, then make it better. Michael did that at Ferrari until it became a habit. Verstappen had been devouring records in a dominant Red Bull before 2025; this was the first time in a while he had to be the firebreak and the finisher. He very nearly pulled it off.
The next reset is already looming. The 2026 regulations are a proper line in the sand — new chassis rules and the first Red Bull-built power unit in partnership with Ford. Whatever aura Verstappen gained this year, it’ll be tested the old-fashioned way: by how quickly Red Bull finds its feet in a brave new formula.
Until then, the conclusion from 2025 is simple enough. Norris took the crown. Verstappen lost the war by two points. But the way he dragged an unsettled Red Bull back into contention — and the way people inside the paddock talk about him now — suggests the fight left a mark that matters. If Ralf’s right, Max didn’t just come out of the storm. He learned how to make one work for him.
