Ecclestone backs Verstappen to snatch 2025 title, questions Norris’ nerve before Abu Dhabi decider
Bernie Ecclestone has done what Bernie Ecclestone does: lob a grenade into a title fight and walk away whistling. On the eve of the Abu Dhabi finale, the 95-year-old former F1 boss says Max Verstappen will overturn a 12-point deficit to Lando Norris and seal a fifth straight world championship.
“I still believe Max will do it. He deserves it,” Ecclestone told the Daily Mail. “I used to say Alain Prost was the best driver of all time… but I think Max is the best I have known. He stands alone.”
Verstappen’s shot at history looked dead and buried at midseason. After the Dutch Grand Prix, he trailed then-leader Oscar Piastri by 104 points. Red Bull found its feet, Verstappen went on a tear, and the standings flipped into a three-man knife fight: Norris leads by 12 from Verstappen, with Piastri a further four back heading into Yas Marina. In simple terms, a Verstappen podium could be enough if Norris stumbles; equally, a clean Norris afternoon knocks all of this noise into the gulf beyond Turn 1. The arithmetic is simple, the pressure isn’t.
Ecclestone, never shy of playing armchair psychologist, aimed a few fastballs at McLaren’s lead man. “Lando is fine, a really good driver, but he is over-confident, too cocky, believing his own publicity,” he said. “He gets nervous at crunch moments and can’t quite deliver the way Max can when the pressure is on.”
That’s the nub of this title: whose Sunday holds up under floodlights. Verstappen, chasing a fifth title on the bounce — something only Michael Schumacher has accomplished — has turned the run-in into his natural habitat. It’s been relentless, methodical, occasionally brutal. Norris, chasing his first, has shouldered McLaren’s charge with speed and swagger, with just enough scruffy edges to keep the doubters chirping. Piastri? Quietly efficient, absolutely in range if chaos intervenes.
Ecclestone also ventured into team politics, suggesting McLaren’s calls have leaned toward Norris at key moments. He pointed to the team swapping cars after a slow stop for Norris at Monza as an example. “A bad pit stop is part of racing. You have to accept it, not engineer it,” he said. That’s a harsh reading of what Woking would call standard damage limitation, but it underlines the stakes. In a three-way shootout, every intra-team decision is a headline.
What makes this finale compelling is the symmetry of risk. Norris carries the points but, arguably, the heaviest burden — convert, and his first world title caps McLaren’s resurgence; falter, and the winter will feel long. Verstappen has been here a dozen times over, and as Ecclestone notes, there’s a freedom in chasing rather than defending. “He has nothing to lose,” he added. That’s debatable — history is a lot to lose — but you get his point.
Strip away the bluster and it comes down to this: Verstappen has dragged himself back into this fight through raw pace and ruthlessness; Norris has led the line of F1’s new generation with speed and showmanship; Piastri has been the constant, collecting when it matters. Abu Dhabi has a habit of turning strategy nuance into swing moments. Safety cars, offsets, undercuts — the small calls will feel seismic with this much on the line.
Ecclestone’s prediction will either look like old-school intuition or familiar provocation by Sunday night. What’s certain is the scale of the storyline. If Verstappen bags it, he ties Schumacher for consecutive titles and crowns one of the great late-season rebounds. If Norris gets it done, it’s the arrival of a new champion with the weight of a storied team behind him. If Piastri steals it, nobody will call him understated again.
It’s been a long season. One race left to sort the rest.
