Juan Pablo Montoya shares what has ‘suddenly’ changed at Red Bull to spark Max Verstappen’s resurgence

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Red Bull cross the world for the Americas portion of the Formula 1 season with a real shot at winning a title in 2025.

As the United States Grand Prix dawns, Max Verstappen knows he must beat both McLaren drivers at every race between now and the end of the year. He can’t afford any slip-ups and will be hoping that his car continues to work as it has lately (four top-two finishes in a row).

After the summer break, everyone had written the Dutchman’s chances of claiming the drivers’ championship off completely. Somehow, he has bounced back in magnificent fashion, and Red Bull have been able to give him a car capable of competing once more.

Verstappen is creating ‘tension’ at McLaren and is going to complicate their fight as the season progresses. Even Jacques Villeneuve has backed Verstappen to come back from the championship’s largest ever deficit to defeat his rivals.

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Red Bull have ‘suddenly’ built ‘parallel’ operations to spark Max Verstappen’s resurgence

Verstappen is in his happy place at Red Bull, and his moods have improved again since an uptick in performance. Positive signs are there heading into the 2026 F1 regulations, too, helping him build some optimism for the future.

With six races to go, Verstappen is going to need some help if he wants to come out on top at the end of the season. At some stage, McLaren are going to have to make mistakes or suffer some unfortunate luck.

Juan Pablo Montoya has suggested that the reason the team has found a way to start winning again lies within their approach, which may have changed as the new regulations get closer.

“No, because suddenly what they have is two parallel programs, and they see that they have enough space to do both things.

“Or, they are suddenly at a point where the February cars, since the car will be in February, the car is already defined. So, suddenly, between the defined car, they had a little extra time that they didn’t use.

“Things that they said, ‘Come on, let’s take advantage of.’ Or things that they found new, new theories in the new car, because the new car is so different. They tried new things and said, ‘We never tested this in the old car.’, and they put it in the wind tunnel and say, ‘Oh, look, boom.'”

READ MORE: Red Bull had one tiny ‘disappointment’ about Max Verstappen’s Singapore Grand Prix performance

Why Max Verstappen has a unique advantage over McLaren in F1 title fight

Looking at the outlook of the championship, McLaren will be aware that they need to be careful about Verstappen’s presence.

If their drivers trip over each other or collide as a result of increasing tensions, then they might be opening the door for all sorts of chaos.

McLaren’s Andrea Stella looks ‘tense’ and with the team’s first title double since 1998 on the line, he can expect that feeling to continue to ramp up.

Verstappen doesn’t have to worry about being fair or maintaining a relationship with his rivals. He doesn’t work with any of them, so it means that everything on track is fair game from now on. That’s a big advantage.