Max Verstappen might rue Red Bull making one Brazilian GP strategy call as his F1 title hopes fade

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Max Verstappen’s Formula 1 title hopes might have vanished at the Brazilian Grand Prix as Lando Norris extended his lead at the top of the standings.

For the first time since the summer break, Red Bull looked a bit lost throughout the weekend, and just about figured their car out in time for Sunday’s race.

The result is that Verstappen is now 49 points adrift of the top of the drivers’ championship with three races remaining.

In other words, he needs a miracle to extend his run of consecutive titles to five and prevent McLaren from achieving their first title double since 1998.

Following a tough Q1 elimination in Sao Paulo, Verstappen sounded ‘clueless’ in an interview, conceding that his season may already be over.

Red Bull’s small ‘tweak’ to Verstappen’s car gave him life on Sunday, but he would have been hoping to achieve more than a third place before the weekend started.

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Max Verstappen will rue extra Red Bull pit stop as F1 title hopes fade after the Brazilian Grand Prix

McLaren were suspicious of a Red Bull change on Saturday night, as they installed a fresh engine in the back of Verstappen’s RB21.

Undoubtedly, that was going to hand him a slight advantage in the race, and his pace was far more encouraging throughout the 71 laps on Sunday.

However, could there have been more in it for him? When he led the race before making a third stop, he had a commanding lead. Although Norris was gaining on him, it would have made for a thrilling finish.

And what exactly did Red Bull have to lose? Winning compared to how things really ended up was a 17-point swing in the title race. From 32 points behind, he still had a small chance heading to Las Vegas. But, Red Bull were conservative.

Michael Schmidt has now revealed how Mercedes engineers made calculations that had Verstappen winning the race ahead of his last stop.

There’s reason to think that the Dutchman might rue his team avoiding a big gamble, which could decide the outcome of the championship.

“Yes, funnily enough, Mercedes’ strategy program had Max Verstappen as the winner at the point when he was just about to make his final pit stop,” said Schmidt. “Yes, there are several opinions on that.

“As I said, Mercedes claimed that if he maintained that speed, he might have been able to win. Both Laurent Mekies, the team boss, and Pierre Wache, the technical director, said no, that would have been too optimistic.”

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What does Max Verstappen need to stand a chance of winning the 2025 F1 title?

In one of the last three races at the very least, Verstappen is relying on things happening outside his control to go heavily in his favour.

Whether that’s McLaren struggling so much in Las Vegas that they barely score any points, or through a Norris retirement, the normal running order will not suffice.

Las Vegas could be a disaster for Oscar Piastri, but he’s not the one that Verstappen is chasing so much anymore.

At this stage, the outlook is pretty clear. Something remarkable needs to happen if Red Bull want to come out on top in 2025.