Brundle: McLaren’s got the big one, but the pack smells blood — and Ferrari’s fading
McLaren left Singapore with the Constructors’ trophy wrapped, sealed and shoved on the top shelf for the second year running. Job done. But if you think the rest of 2025 is a coronation tour, Martin Brundle would like a word.
In his post-race column, Brundle praised McLaren’s season-long heft but was clear about the trend line: Red Bull and Mercedes have closed the gap. He reckons McLaren can still win “four of the last seven,” yet he doesn’t see a steamroll coming — not with Max Verstappen and George Russell turning up the wick and Ferrari slipping out of the picture.
That weekend in Singapore summed up the state of play. McLaren secured the teams’ title — they’re 325 points clear of Mercedes with only 303 left on the board — but the spotlight swung to Russell, who felt rough on Friday, stuck his Mercedes in the wall, then bounced back to win on Sunday. Verstappen chased him home, making it three straight races of points taken from both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. And that drivers’ title? Still very much alive. Piastri leads, Norris lurks just 22 points behind, and Verstappen’s now in the same postcode again.
Brundle’s broader point is about the margins. The modern field is so tight that one scruffy qualifying lap isn’t worth “a row or two,” it’s worth five. The cars are heavy on aero, overtaking is nowhere near straightforward, and Sundays are turning into long chess matches where track position is everything and tiny errors are punished brutally.
On car characteristics, the McLaren still has a sweet spot: long, high-speed corners with proper tyre deg. We haven’t had much of that lately. The team expects the curve to bend back their way in Brazil, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, and to be better — though not necessarily bulletproof — in Austin. That’s the roadmap they’re working from.
The curve has already bent once this late summer. McLaren’s charge for the double wobbled when Verstappen won Monza and then doubled up in Baku, cooling the swagger that followed those seven pre-break 1-2s. Singapore, drama and all, was a solid reset: bank the Constructors’, keep two drivers in the title shootout, and live to sprint again in the Americas and Middle East.
The elephant in the room is Ferrari. Brundle didn’t sugar-coat it: “Sadly, the same can’t be said for Ferrari,” he wrote, noting the Scuderia is off the lead pace despite two blue-chip drivers in Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. On Sunday night, Leclerc was sixth — 46 seconds down on Russell — while Hamilton coaxed an ailing, brake-troubled car to eighth. After spending much of the season in second, Ferrari’s been dragged back into a knife fight for the podium places in the Constructors’ standings and now sits only eight points ahead of Red Bull. The trajectory isn’t kind.
So where does this leave the final stretch?
– McLaren: Champions already, favourites on the right circuits, but no longer untouchable. If they hit their tyre window at Interlagos, Lusail and Yas Marina, they’ll fancy stacking wins and letting the drivers settle the rest internally.
– Red Bull: Verstappen’s upswing has changed the tone. He’s carved points out of both McLaren drivers in three straight races and looks increasingly nuisance-grade on Sundays. If the car keeps edging forward, the title arithmetic gets interesting.
– Mercedes: Russell’s Singapore win — on a weekend that started with a bang against the barriers — was a statement. The team’s race pace looks genuinely alive now, and if they qualify cleanly, they’re in the fight for wins rather than just podiums.
– Ferrari: Too often best of the rest, not often enough best of the bunch. Leclerc and Hamilton are extracting what they can, but the deficit to the leaders is visible and growing on the wrong days. The focus might shift to locking down P3 in the championship rather than chasing miracles.
Brundle’s advice to fans is to enjoy this while it lasts. This blend of ultra-tight performance, strategic variance and the odd curveball — Russell finding form on a tricky weekend, Verstappen nicking momentum when it matters, McLaren picking their tracks — is the kind of parity we pined for not so long ago.
McLaren’s got the silverware that says 2025 already belongs to them. The rest? That’s still up for a scrap. And if the next run of tracks really does suit the papaya, they’ll need to prove it against a Red Bull that’s resurging, a Mercedes that smells opportunity, and a Ferrari that’s trying to hold on as the tide turns.
