The world of Formula 1 is witnessing a spectacular and dramatic upset, as the Red Bull Racing team, once thought to have lost its way, has suddenly surged back with a vengeance, putting McLaren in unprecedented “major trouble.” Following back-to-back victories at Monza and Baku, Max Verstappen, who was previously considered out of the championship contention, has now become a threat that cannot be ignored, issuing a “dramatic statement” to the entire F1 grid. The 2025 season, already full of surprises, is heading towards what could be the “most dramatic conclusion in history” as anything can happen in the remaining seven races.

Red Bull’s Impressive Resurgence: From Crisis to Championship Contender?

Just a few weeks ago, the prospect of Max Verstappen competing for the title seemed like a distant, wild dream. Red Bull endured a difficult start to the season, leading many to believe they were in “rebuild mode.” However, everything changed dramatically with the arrival of Laurent Mekies as Team Principal. Mekies, a brilliant technical leader, quickly revitalized the team’s morale and performance. The endless praise from drivers, especially Verstappen, and engineers demonstrated his significant impact.

The most noticeable change came from their technical approach. At Monza, Verstappen was even given the authority to choose the rear wing setup, a bold decision that proved to be exactly what the team needed. This was followed by the introduction of a new floor and an upgraded rear wing for Baku, creating a perfect upgrade package that allowed Red Bull to make a “great comeback”. These weren’t just lucky wins; for the first time, Red Bull showed competitiveness based on the car’s “pure merit.” Even teammate Yuki Tsunoda achieved his highest career finish at P6 in Baku, a clear testament to the team’s overall improvement.

Mekies shifted the team’s focus, prioritizing feedback from the drivers over relying solely on simulator data. This brought incredible stability to the RB21, something Verstappen was particularly pleased with. He even patted the car after the race as a sign of approval. Verstappen’s satisfaction with the car’s behavior has “gone through the roof,” transforming Red Bull from a team that seemed to have collapsed into a “troublesome team to fight with” after just a couple of upgrades.

Max Verstappen: Is 69 Points Just a Number?

With seven races and three sprint events remaining, Verstappen is 69 points behind Oscar Piastri in the driver standings. Even Max himself remains cautious, admitting it’s “still a lot” and that he needs everything to “go perfectly” on his side, along with “a bit of bad luck from McLaren’s side”. However, the optimism within Red Bull, especially from Laurent Mekies, is far greater. Mekies warned all of F1 that his team is “not going to finish 2025 just like that” and won’t “leave any stone unturned”. He emphasized that there is “no silver bullet,” but the relentless work of Max, Yuki, and the entire team has been “paying off”.

Although Monza and Baku are “unconventional” tracks with low downforce and less demand for high-speed cornering, Verstappen’s dominant victories were still a powerful statement of Red Bull’s return. The stability of the RB21 under Mekies’ leadership is a promising sign, showing that the team has found the “technical leader” it needed to turn things around.

McLaren’s Fear: Is Singapore the Decisive Tipping Point?

While Red Bull celebrates, alarm bells have gone off at McLaren’s headquarters in Woking. If they lose Singapore, a track that is supposed to “favor them massively” because of its nature, based on “pure race merit,” then an “even bigger hell” will await them for the remainder of the 2025 season.

Singapore has always been a huge challenge for Verstappen—he has never won at Marina Bay in his career. However, knowing his fierce competitiveness, Max will undoubtedly “push like hell” to claim his first victory there. If Red Bull can improve the car’s stability on a high-downforce, low-speed track like Singapore, it will mark a “massive shift” in the drivers’ championship battle.

Laurent Mekies maintains a cautious stance, stating the team will take things “race by race” and “won’t force anything”. He acknowledged that Singapore has been a “challenging” track for the team for many years and will be a crucial test to see what “suddenly doesn’t work there anymore”. After Singapore, F1 will return to tracks with “medium speed corners,” where McLaren had “killed” Red Bull at Zandvoort just two races ago. The gap then was “very significant.”

The Pressure Mounts on Norris and Piastri

Hope for a Red Bull comeback is spreading rapidly among fans. However, unfortunate weekends for Piastri, like the incident in Baku, are “inconvenient,” and one “cannot always hope for a DNF” from the Australian driver. Now, Piastri will face “a lot more pressure” from both Lando Norris and Verstappen, as they both see a “legitimate chance” to take him down in the final seven races and three sprint events.

Red Bull is ready to take “more risks” with both tire choice and strategy, having adopted a “unique way of operating”. For Max, he has “everything to win but nothing to lose” at this point. A comeback would be “surreal” and “nobody expects it,” but if the car is there, he will undoubtedly “give the McLarens a lot of headaches” in the remainder of the campaign.

Even Andrea Stella, McLaren’s Team Principal, had to admit they “haven’t written Verstappen off just yet”. He wonders where Max would have been without the crash in Austria and the poor weekends in Silverstone and Hungary. However, the focus now is on the “realistic picture”: Verstappen needs to outscore Piastri by 10 points and Norris by six points in every remaining weekend to be crowned world champion.

Stella believes this is a “realistic option”. He stated, “Red Bull is a very serious contender to win races and a very serious contender for the drivers’ championship is Verstappen”. With 224 points left on the table, the answer to whether Verstappen is back in contention is a firm “yes”. We must not forget that he is “Max Verstappen, world champion for the last four years” in a “fast car”.

There are races where McLaren may not enjoy any competitive advantage. One thing is for sure: “Red Bull is a different team from Monza onwards”. But whether they have enough in the tank to dethrone Piastri from the top of the drivers’ championship, only time will tell.

F1 fans are hoping for a “very interesting and rather dramatic conclusion” to the 2025 championship. With all these factors in play, can Max snatch the championship away from the McLaren drivers? Will another DNF create “even more panic” in the rows of the Papaya Squad? The F1 battle has never been this intense!