It was before the summer holidays, when Max Verstappen and Red BullThe season reached its climax: a modest eighth place at the Hungarian Grand Prix saw both driver and team write off their chances of winning the championship.
It was so low that the world champion was unable to see the world in which he won another race in 2025. But write them off at your peril, because this is a combination that has defined greatness before and will do so again.
After his home race, the Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen was 104 points behind the title leader. Over the next four races, he reduced this number to 40. At this rate, he will become world champion, both McLaren drivers struggle to create any momentum together.
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RB21 found what he couldn't earlier this year. Updates carried out after the summer changed its characteristics. Even though the Papaya drivers have performed worse in recent races, Verstappen was genuinely fast and could have even taken pole and won in Singapore if his final lap in Q3 had been smoother.
Ultimately it is 119 points out of the last 133 possible; including three wins in the last four races, four out of five if you count the sprints, the comeback in the making is quite remarkable.
But of his dominant victory in the US, Verstappen said: skysportsf1.com: “Yes, of course, there is a chance. [of the championship].
“We just have to try and get this weekend through to the end. We will try to do everything we can. It’s exciting and I’m very happy to the end.”
On his US Grand Prix triumph, which secured him maximum points in Austin, Texas, Verstappen added: “The key moment was that first stint when Charles [Leclerc] Basically, he held Lando back a little bit because that was where I could get my comeback.
“Once Lando was in clear air, he became very fast, matching us or even ahead of us. Essentially, that gap remained more or less the same until the end, where Lando, of course, had to pass Charles again.”
Verstappen's three victories in the last four races have come at different circuits. Although low drag predominates at Monza and the Baku City Street Circuit, the amount of low-speed cornering as well as exposure to wind suggests more global high-performance performance with which the RB21 and Verstappen excelled.
And the Circuit of the Americas is a completely different track layout, with more types of turns; with a high-speed snake of the first sector and a slow one that appears at the beginning of the third sector.
So while Norris's race was hampered by Charles Leclerc's brilliant defensive work, Verstappen was a reliable force on various circuits, something that had not been the case at the start of this campaign.
