Why it’s now or never for Red Bull in 2025 F1 title fight

Max Verstappen has indicated Red Bull’s upcoming upgrades will define the team’s fortunes over the remainder of the 2025 F1 season.

Following an upgraded floor in Miami, rear corner changes in Imola and a Barcelona front wing, Red Bull is bringing its latest new bits to its Red Bull RB21 at its Austrian home race.

Those incremental changes have been credited with helping Red Bull achieve a slightly better through-corner balance in general, but the team feels it is still lagging behind the leading McLarens on overall grip, especially on technical circuits with longer, low-to-medium speed corners where rear tyre management is key.

Earlier this week, team advisor Helmut Marko said Austria’s upgrade “will then be refined again for Silverstone”, but will likely be Red Bull’s last push before fully switching to 2026’s development programme.

Holding third in the drivers’ standings, Verstappen acknowledged that the next two weekends at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone are going to define his and the team’s ambitions for this year.

“There are a couple of races coming up now where things can possibly change,” Verstappen said at the Red Bull Ring. “We will see how much of a difference this package can make. Hopefully it will help, but I don’t know if it will be enough.

“Of course, the others are not standing still either. We’ll see in the next few races until the summer break.”

But Verstappen wasn’t overly optimistic of catching the leading McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

“With the standings and how it looks now, that’s not very realistic. I’m honest about that,” he said. “Just look at the results, then I think you know enough. In Canada we actually had only the fifth-fastest pace of all the drivers as well. We just did everything right the whole time there in terms of strategy.

“But I try to make the most of every weekend anyway and then I go home. It’s easy for me to turn that switch on and off. When I cross the finish line, then the setting goes ‘off’ again.”

The four-time world champion didn’t get carried away by McLaren’s surprisingly muted performances in Canada either, as he felt it was too track specific to carry over the upcoming circuits.

“No, absolutely not,” he shrugged when asked by Motorsport.com if Montreal showed the fight at the front will be more open from now on.

“McLaren is always very good on the tyres when they get really hot. In Montreal, that’s generally a little less the case, so you can explain that. We also had a few races in our dominant years where it was more difficult, and that can happen.”