Max Verstappen now presents McLaren with a different challenge

“A horrible race.” Those were Max Verstappen’s own words to describe Sunday’s British Grand Prix, despite the race being a thrilling rain spectacle for neutral fans.

But the full story of the Silverstone weekend runs deeper. In many ways, it has been a perfect summary of Verstappen’s 2025 Formula 1 season so far.

That parallel began as early as media day, when he once again faced questions about his future. It fits the narrative of the season: as long as Red Bull’s performance falters and the outside world is waiting for a decision, Verstappen’s future will continue to dominate talks in the paddock.

Extreme set-up choice reflects Red Bull’s situation

What happened on track mirrored the story of the season as well. Red Bull struggled on Friday and Verstappen, as so often, reported understeer—calling the car’s handling “unbelievable”, and not in a positive way.

The RB21 has an extremely narrow operating window, and this is a twofold pattern.

First, weather-wise, the car doesn’t like heat (as seen in Austria) and struggles in slow corners, meaning the team needs very specific tracks and weather conditions to challenge McLaren.

The second aspect is related to the set-up. Although this already was an issue with last year’s car, the set-up window of Red Bull’s 2025 challenger is still very small. Furthermore, the simulator rarely matches reality, which forces Red Bull into major overnight changes, hence why Red Bull frequently makes the biggest gains from Friday to Saturday.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Erik Junius

Sometimes those gains require extreme measures, as seen at Silverstone. Red Bull opted to run low downforce by trimming the rear wing. It worked for qualifying but highlights a contrast – McLaren didn’t need to do anything drastic. Red Bull chose low downforce, Ferrari went with a higher-downforce set-up, and McLaren sat safely in the middle. It is no coincidence. Red Bull had to gamble to be competitive, which is a stark contrast to Red Bull’s dominant years as well.

In 2022 and 2023, Red Bull had the luxury of running more downforce at Spa-Francorchamps than anyone else on the grid. The RB18 and RB19 were so aerodynamically efficient that they remained fast on the straights even with the extra downforce and drag, enabling the drivers to benefit from Red Bull’s set-up choice in the twisty middle sector.

Less than two years on, that freedom to play around with the set-up is fully gone. Now Red Bull must take risks to stay in the fight, and Silverstone painfully highlighted that.

Together with the low-downforce set-up on a wet track, Verstappen’s spin didn’t help, costing him eight positions and putting him in traffic. It hurt his race, but the Dutchman highlighted that, even without the spin, he simply wasn’t fast enough: “I didn’t have more pace than anyone around me. That was my pace and that was just not good. Our rear wing didn’t help, but even with more downforce, we wouldn’t have been able to fight McLaren.”

This leads to the main conclusion. Red Bull introduced a new floor across the Austria/Britain double-header, which worked but is not sufficient to turn the season around, Verstappen insisted.

Marko had already waved the white flag after Austria, and doubled down at Silverstone: “We still have a few parts in the pipeline, but we’ve seen that it’s not enough. We have to acknowledge that McLaren is superior, and it’ll be very difficult to get anywhere near them this season.” Regardless of the weather, Sunday offered another reality check based on pure race pace—something Verstappen and Red Bull have experienced more often this year.

Foto door: Red Bull Content Pool

Verstappen still a factor for McLaren—but in a different way

With a 69-point deficit in the championship at the halfway mark, Verstappen’s title hopes are all but gone. Red Bull will bring some more updates in Spa, but like every team, focus at the factory is already on 2026. Turning this season around is virtually impossible, not just due to a lack of pace but also because of the narrow set-up window and the differences in tyre management compared to McLaren. As a result, Verstappen can only target race wins and some standout moments, like his pole lap around Silverstone or his overtake on Oscar Piastri in Imola.

It still matters, especially for the title fight between both McLaren drivers. Verstappen may not be in the championship battle himself, but he remains a factor in it. With four pole positions so far this season, he consistently starts near the front, meaning the McLaren drivers have to fight him at least in the opening stages of most races. And now Verstappen has nothing to lose or to think about, he can go all in for race wins and defend as hard as he likes.

This situation is similar to the pre-2021 seasons, when Red Bull wasn’t yet a consistent title threat and Verstappen raced purely for wins. He hinted at this mindset before the British GP: “I’m not really in the title fight any more, so now we can just have some fun and fight for it.”

It creates a new dynamic in the fight with McLaren and could affect the on-track battles with Norris and Piastri. How hard will the Dutchman defend at specific moments, and is he prepared to take more risks knowing the title is out of reach anyway? The penalty points aren’t much of a factor in this. Two of those expired on 30 June, but even a race ban wouldn’t really harm Verstappen in the championship. There won’t be consequences in the constructors’ standings either, as Red Bull seems on course for an inevitable fourth place, no matter what happens.

McLaren’s drivers may have to show some more caution with a bolder Verstappen at times, but not too much, as they are still each other’s main rivals and can’t afford to drop points in the intra-team battle. It’s an intriguing subplot in a season where Verstappen himself is no longer realistically contending for the title. After a weekend that summed up his season, it’s still orange versus papaya, but the dimensions of that fight might change somewhat following the past two race weekends.