Verstappen admits only ‘perfect’ will do as Red Bull’s late surge drags title fight back to life
Max Verstappen has sounded more bullish than at any point this season — and with good reason. Three wins from the last four grands prix have hauled him back into the conversation he wasn’t supposed to be in: the 2025 World Championship fight.
The numbers tell the story. Since the summer break, Verstappen has chewed 64 points out of Oscar Piastri’s lead and is now 40 points behind the McLaren rookie with five races and two Sprints to go. That gap once looked like a brick wall. Right now, it feels more like a doorway.
“I think we need to be perfect until the end to have a chance,” Verstappen said after a commanding victory in Austin that carried distinct echoes of his 2023 dominance. “We caught up a lot. But at the same time, the gaps are very small. It’s super close, and just attention to detail will make the difference. Try to get the best set-up on the car every weekend and then try not to make mistakes.”
Earlier in the year, Red Bull were stuck in an awkward middle ground: quick, but not quick enough to bully races, with McLaren’s relentless points machine of Piastri and Lando Norris building a cushion. The pendulum has swung since then. Red Bull’s upgrade path has finally bitten, and there’s a clear sense they’ve unlocked a sweeter operating window for the RB21.
“We found a good way with the car. It’s as simple as that,” Verstappen said. “Of course, we put some upgrades on the car, but we just understood our car a bit better — where we wanted it to perform better. Every weekend we try to achieve it. Some weekends, it’s better than others, but in general it’s been way more straightforward the last few weekends compared to before.”
How much of this is Red Bull reloading, and how much is McLaren glancing toward 2026? It’s not a secret Woking has begun shifting resource to the new rules cycle. That doesn’t mean they’ve checked out of 2025 — far from it — but it does help explain why Verstappen, for the first time in months, can speak with a hint of momentum at his back.
The Dutchman’s assessment also hints at the margins this fight will be decided on. With two Sprints left — mini-opportunities that can swing 10 points in a heartbeat — and five very different circuits to go, “perfect” is as much about error-free Saturdays as it is about Sundays. McLaren’s execution has generally been razor-sharp; Red Bull’s, lately, has been vintage Red Bull.
The mood music around Verstappen has softened, too. Earlier in the campaign he routinely shrugged off title talk, all but writing off his prospects. Asked what he’d have said if someone promised he’d be in contention by late October, he laughed: “I would have told him he was an idiot.”
No one’s laughing now. Austin was a statement — metronomic pace, tactical clarity, no fuss — the sort of afternoon that shifts the psychology of a title run-in. It was also proof that, when the car is in its window, Verstappen can still slam the door on a field that’s otherwise been a tick quicker over one lap.
McLaren, for their part, won’t be rattled. They still control the board with two cars in the hunt and a package that’s been the reference for most of the season. But Red Bull’s resurgence changes the geometry of this fight. If Verstappen keeps punching in wins, it forces McLaren to choose between risk and reward, between covering one driver and protecting the other. That’s how tight title races go from stable to spicy.
“Every weekend you need to try and be perfect,” Verstappen repeated. It’s not a throwaway line; it’s the reality of what remains. Red Bull have reduced this championship to a precision exercise. The margins are now small enough that one scruffy qualifying lap or a slow stop could be the difference between 10 points and 25.
Everyone’s seen this movie before. If Verstappen can keep the car in that narrow sweet spot, and if McLaren’s focus on the future keeps nibbling at their present, a 40-point deficit with seven scoring rounds left isn’t insurmountable. It becomes a pressure test.
The reigning champion has set the terms: perfection or bust. Over to McLaren to decide whether that bar is high enough.
