Despite finishing just behind new world champion Lando Norris in the final standings, Max Verstappen says he does not see 2025 as a title that slipped away.

Speaking to Dutch broadcaster Viaplay, he argued that over the full season, Red Bull lacked the pace and consistency to genuinely challenge McLaren, especially through a bruising first half of the year.

After the Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen trailed Oscar Piastri by 104 points, underlining how far Red Bull had fallen behind before a late resurgence made the final margin look deceptively small. Set-up gains at Red Bull coincided with McLaren errors, reliability setbacks, and even a double disqualification in Las Vegas, helping Verstappen claw his way back into mathematical contention.

How McLaren’s missteps made it look close

Verstappen openly credits McLaren’s issues for making the title race appear tighter than it really was. Piastri’s mistakes, strategy blunders, a mechanical problem for Norris at Zandvoort, and that costly Las Vegas disqualification all combined to bleed points from the eventual champions.

Because Norris and Piastri frequently took points off each other at the front, Verstappen could benefit whenever Red Bull found a competitive window. He finished the year with eight Grand Prix victories, one more than Norris, but maintains that headline stat hides the underlying reality of a car and team that spent too many weekends on the back foot.

Red Bull’s turbulent season and Verstappen’s perspective

Red Bull’s own turmoil forms a major part of Verstappen’s assessment. Mid-season struggles were severe enough that Christian Horner was replaced by Laurent Mekies, symbolizing a campaign riddled with operational errors, pit stop mistakes, and missed opportunities. Verstappen even shrugs off his Spanish Grand Prix penalty for clashing with George Russell, saying Barcelona alone did not decide anything in a year full of “gifts” and setbacks for every contender.

The Dutchman summed up his philosophy with a typically blunt analogy, insisting that losing by one point or twenty makes no difference because “not winning is not winning.” For Verstappen, the 2025 season will be remembered less as a near miss and more as a year when simply staying in the conversation for the title was an achievement in itself, given how far Red Bull had to come.