Red Bull have done something that makes ‘no sense’ to give Max Verstappen a 2025 F1 title chance

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Max Verstappen is still within half a chance of securing the drivers’ championship this season, but Red Bull’s prioritisation of the RB21 may come at a sizeable cost during next year.

Lando Norris has shifted the momentum of the title fight back into his own favour in recent race weekends, taking comprehensive victories in all three of the last three races across both the Sprint and Grand Prix formats.

The British driver now sits 49 points ahead of the reigning world champion in third, but it is still possible for Max Verstappen to steal the title away from him due to the three rounds of racing that remain.

Verstappen’s emergence as a title contender came after Red Bull decided to continue delivering upgrades to their RB21. However, the lack of prioritisation for the new season, which brings a new era of F1 regulations, may come back to bite them.

READ MORE: ‘Very reliable source’ shares just how far off the pace Red Bull’s 2026 engine is likely to be

Alpine chief Steve Nielsen says it ‘makes no sense’ to develop their 2025 and 2026 F1 cars at the same time

Alpine were one of the first teams on the grid to shift focus to the new regulations, and it has hindered them dramatically in their hopes of securing a good position in the F1 standings this year.

Most of their midfield rivals, like Haas, have continued to bring upgrades to their 2025 challenger as the season has progressed, akin to the development route that Red Bull have taken.

In a recent interview with Motorsport.com, the managing director of the Enstone-based racing outfit, Steve Nielsen, explained his decision-making when asked why Alpine didn’t take the two-pronged approach like many of their rivals.

He said, “The answer is easy: we hoped to be a little more competitive. I just hope that the difficulties we’re experiencing now will be justified next year, when we’ll have a much more competitive car. 

“But, just to be clear, I want to say that it makes no sense to continue developing two cars in parallel. The regulations require the use of only one wind tunnel. Keeping the A525 in the wind tunnel would have meant halting the development of the 2026 car.

“We couldn’t dedicate ourselves to the two programs because it would have been a very inefficient way of working: removing one model and adding another means wasting precious time in the wind tunnel. Hours and days are wasted recalibrating the wind tunnel.

“That’s why we bet on next year. I won’t deny that we were counting on having a more competitive car, and we were caught off guard by how much our rivals have developed. We hope to show you in March that we made the right choice, putting our car significantly further ahead.”

READ MORE: Red Bull are now planning new upgrade for Max Verstappen at McLaren’s weakest track

Red Bull have shot themselves in the foot with their attempts to give Max Verstappen a title-winning car in 2025

Nielsen’s reasoning for why Alpine completely ceased development of their subpar 2025 challenger doesn’t bode well at all for the frontrunning Red Bull team.

To put things more into perspective, the French constructor gets a much larger allowance of time in their wind tunnel than Red Bull, due to their finishing position in the 2024 constructors’ championship.

That immediately puts the Austrian constructor on the back foot, and paired with the rumours that Red Bull’s 2026 F1 engine isn’t up to scratch, we could be seeing a very frustrated Verstappen at race weekends next season.

It seems like a very strange decision to prioritise the current campaign over the brand new set of regulations that we will see overhaul the grid next year.

Through the success they’ve had in the current ruleset, Red Bull know the advantage that can be gained by nailing them at the first opportunity better than any other team on the grid.

It remains to be seen whether Red Bull’s efforts in 2026 will be hindered by their decision to continue upgrading the RB21 in 2025. If the effects are as bad as expected, who knows what it holds for the future of Verstappen in Milton Keynes?