Verstappen expects “proper fight” for 2025 F1 season

Having clinched his fourth drivers’ title in 2024, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen expects that next year will provide fans with “a proper fight between many teams.”

Having clinched the victory in all but one race in 2023 in an utterly dominant year for Red Bull, the Milton Keynes-based outfit started this year’s campaign in a similarly dominant fashion.

Max Verstappen won the opening two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia before retiring from the lead in Round 3 in Australia with a brake issue. However, he then went on to win in Japan, China, Imola, Canada and Spain to clinch seven victories in the opening nine races.

However, he then failed to win in the following ten rounds, but the São Paulo Grand Prix saw the Dutch driver emerge victories in wet weather conditions.

Despite Red Bull’s fading performance, Verstappen performed consistently at the front of the field and won his fourth consecutive Drivers’ Championship title at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Reflecting on his season, Verstappen added: “[The season] was quite up and down. We had a great start to the year, and everything was looking great. I think especially from the outside, of course, as a team, I think you always understand your limitations and what you want to work on, and then the competition did a great job they improved their cars a lot and made it a lot more difficult for us especially in the constructors”

“We had a bit of a tough run in the middle of the season, but even when we’re under pressure, we have tough times, I think the team really stuck together we didn’t Panic, which could easily be done in those kinds of situations but at the end of the day, I’m just very proud of everyone in the team as well.

“We’re not standing here as constructors’ Champions, but in a way, I do think we deserved a little bit more in that Championship. I try my very best, and we also know a lot about what we have to work on anyway for next year.

“I’m also very excited about that because it looks like it will be a proper fight between many teams. “

With his fourth title, the Dutch driver has joined a list of drivers that have won four consecutive drivers’ championship titles – Alain Prost, Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, and Lewis Hamilton.

“It’s, of course, something that as a kid when you grow up you don’t think about these things; you look at the names, and you’re like wow that’s really impressive I hope one day I can be on the podium, but sometimes you get lucky in life you are in the right place at the right time, and as a driver, you have to take advantage of that, and luckily I’ve been able to to do that.

Verstappen continued: “At the same time, it’s amazing four titles are definitely incredible. Of course, I also hope it doesn’t stop here.

“I hope that we can be successful for a longer period, but as you can see, this year, the competition is very close; then again, in 2026, a lot is going to change, and maybe some other teams are going to be competitive again, but for the moment I think it’s just very important to enjoy the moment be proud of what we have also achieved as a team and then we’ll try again next year.”