Max Verstappen shares the biggest reason McLaren have outclassed Red Bull in 2025

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Max Verstappen has enjoyed the most dominant years of his career in recent seasons, and amid the changing of the guard to McLaren, the four-time world champion has shared the biggest reason why Red Bull have been outclassed in 2025.

The beginning of the 2025 F1 season saw Verstappen and Red Bull begin a season on the back foot for the first time in recent years.

Lando Norris’ win at the season-opener in Australia ended the Dutchman’s streak of 1,007 consecutive days at the top of the drivers’ championship, smashing Michael Schumacher’s previous record of leading the championship for 896 days during his highly successful tenure at Ferrari.

As the season progressed, it became clear that McLaren had the superior car, which has been echoed through their clinching of the 2025 constructors’ title with six rounds to go.

READ MORE: The F1 paddock already knows why Red Bull and Max Verstappen have made sudden ‘progress’ in 2025

Max Verstappen admits that Red Bull got too ‘comfortable’ after enjoying such a dominant period in F1

In an appearance on the Pelas Pistas podcast with fellow F1 driver Gabriel Bortoleto, Verstappen touched upon the reasons why Red Bull failed to put up the same calibre of a fight to McLaren at the beginning of the season in comparison to their recent form.

The four-time world champion replied, “I think for us, because we had such dominant years, we didn’t push the car to the extreme.

“We had an advantage initially, you know, the cars were all bouncing a lot, right?

“Our car did not really have that a lot and we were quite good at that and then we got a little bit comfortable maybe with not being too extreme.”

The main factor in the Milton Keynes-based constructor’s resurgence in the second half of the season has come down to Red Bull’s continuation of delivering upgrades to the RB21.

Verstappen hit a purple patch upon the resumption of the season at his home Grand Prix, and he has featured on the podium at every race since.

The results are of stark contrast to his form in the first half of the season, where he recorded just five top-three finishes in the opening 14 race weekends.

READ MORE: Red Bull chief dials up the pressure on Oscar Piastri by revealing upgrade plan for Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen pinpoints the Dutch GP as a turning point for Red Bull’s season

During his podcast appearance, Verstappen was asked for the moment that Red Bull engineers noticed that they had figured out a direction to take the RB21, which led to him eating away at the 104-point deficit he had at the conclusion of the Dutch Grand Prix.

“I would say what we learned in Zandvoort,” the Red Bull star replied. “Honestly, we really tried going left, and right with the car, which is very extreme in Formula 1 because normally you’re always about little percentages left and right.

“We tried it all and nothing was really working. So at one point we’re like well there’s only one more thing that we can do. We did it and that gave us a bit of a direction of a bit of a better balance.

“I mean it was still not good enough but since then, every time we got to a racetrack, sometimes we were fast enough, sometimes not, but in general we were more consistent from FP1 to qualifying and the race.

” We were always either there or too slow, it’s just stable. Whereas all the races up until Zandvoort, we could be really bad, really good, really bad in a weekend, you know?

“From then onwards, at least the car just felt a bit more in a window and it was a bit more easier for me also to to drive which of course helps a lot.”

Red Bull are planning on bringing yet another upgrade to the RB21 at the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix, which has been highlighted as a weak circuit for McLaren.

If the Dutchman is able to keep himself within talks of the title following the conclusion of the current race weekend in Brazil, he could exert even more pressure on Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on the streets of Sin City.