In the high-stakes, adrenaline-fueled world of Formula 1, a single statement can ignite a firestorm. McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella did just that when he dropped a bombshell on the paddock, declaring Red Bull’s Max Verstappen a “championship contender”—a warning he reportedly emphasized in all capital letters. Just a few races ago, such a notion would have been dismissed as pure fantasy. Now, it hangs in the air, a tantalizing and terrifying prospect that has sent shockwaves through the sport. With a 69-point deficit and only seven races remaining, is this a genuine threat to McLaren’s dominant season, or a calculated mind game from a master strategist?

The question on everyone’s lips is whether Red Bull has genuinely unlocked the performance needed to challenge the papaya cars of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. The answer could redefine one of the most compelling F1 seasons in recent memory, turning a presumed McLaren coronation into an all-out war.

Verstappen: The Ultimate “Disruptor” or a True Contender?

On the surface, the odds are stacked against Verstappen. F1 analyst Samarth Canal frames him less as a legitimate title contender and more as a “disruptor”—a powerful force capable of influencing the championship’s outcome without winning it himself. The logic is sound: clawing back such a significant deficit in a limited timeframe is a monumental task. The upcoming calendar presents a mixed bag for Red Bull. While they excelled on high-speed, low-drag circuits like Monza and Azerbaijan, the tight, twisty confines of the Singapore street circuit pose a completely different challenge.

“I just don’t think that there’s enough races in the season for him to claw back that deficit and then beat the McLarens,” Canal stated, expressing skepticism about Red Bull’s ability to replicate their success under the Singapore lights, especially if rain enters the equation. With subsequent races in the USA and Mexico also seen as potential McLaren strongholds, the path to victory for Verstappen appears narrow and fraught with obstacles. While his driving has been nothing short of spectacular—his performance in Azerbaijan was hailed as “absolutely amazing”—the consensus among skeptics is that the “title contender” label is a stretch.

However, fellow analyst Ben Anderson offers a more thrilling perspective, urging fans to “get excited” about the prospect of a three-way title fight. The last two races, he argues, have breathed new life into a championship that was becoming a two-horse race between the McLaren teammates. Anderson draws a compelling parallel to Lando Norris’s 2024 season, where he was considered an outside contender despite being closer in points to the lead. But there’s a key difference: “As the hunter, Max Verstappen is a more tantalizing prospect than Norris was,” Anderson explained. This vision of Verstappen, unleashed and relentlessly pursuing his rivals, is a frightening one for McLaren.

The upcoming Singapore Grand Prix is universally seen as the “acid test”. If Red Bull’s recent performance gains are real and not track-specific, it will show up there. “If Max dominates Singapore, then it’s game on,” Anderson declared, suggesting that while Verstappen would need a perfect run to the end of the season, he is perhaps the only driver on the grid capable of achieving such a feat.

Red Bull’s Breakthrough and the Pressure Cooker at McLaren

The hope for a Verstappen resurgence isn’t just wishful thinking; it’s rooted in tangible evidence of Red Bull’s progress. The team introduced a new floor and front wing at Monza, upgrades that appear to have fundamentally improved the car’s performance envelope. Andrea Stella himself admitted that McLaren has noticed a significant increase in Red Bull’s radio traffic about “avoiding bottoming”—a clear sign they have solved earlier issues and are now aggressively pushing the car’s limits to extract more downforce by running it lower to the ground.

This technical leap means the RB car is now a more versatile and “globally better” machine, allowing Verstappen to be “a slightly bigger thorn in the side of the McLaren drivers” on a wider variety of tracks. This progress serves a dual purpose: it gives Verstappen a fighting chance and simultaneously cranks up the pressure on McLaren. They can no longer afford to cruise to the finish line.

Even if Verstappen’s charge is a “false dawn,” as Canal suggests, his mere presence as a constant threat forces McLaren to react. Stella’s public comments can be interpreted as a strategic warning to his own team against complacency. “Look, don’t be complacent, because the Red Bull’s strong enough now that if we keep shooting ourselves in the foot… then things could go wrong,” is the underlying message.

The disastrous weekend in Baku for McLaren serves as a stark reminder of their vulnerability. Both Piastri and Norris underperformed, opening the door for Verstappen’s victory. It proved that even with the fastest car, execution is everything. Any repeat of such a weekend could be catastrophic, turning Verstappen’s outside chance into a genuine probability.

The McLaren Civil War: Should the Team Back One Horse?

The Verstappen threat intensifies an already simmering issue within McLaren: the fierce rivalry between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. This raises a critical strategic question: should McLaren abandon its policy of equality and prioritize one driver for the championship?

Samarth Canal believes it’s a “dangerous” proposition at this stage. With the points gap between the two drivers so narrow, picking a side could alienate the other driver and fracture the team’s harmony. He advocates for an “ad-hoc, situational” approach, where the driver who is ahead on track gets the strategic advantage on any given race day. The team’s so-called “Papaya Rules” have already set a precedent for managing their drivers, but the immense pressure of a title fight could test those rules to their breaking point.

Ben Anderson, however, argues that with the constructors’ championship all but secured, the team’s priority should shift. “The team harmony is all about that,” he noted, but once that prize is won, the drivers’ championship should become the focus. In his view, the team should be prepared to let them fight it out. The risk, of course, is that they take too many points off each other, allowing Verstappen to sneak through the middle—a scenario eerily reminiscent of the 2007 season when Kimi Räikkönen stole the title from warring McLaren teammates Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

For now, the team is unlikely to enforce team orders unless the situation becomes dire. If Norris suffers another setback and Piastri extends his lead to 50 points, or if Verstappen gets even closer, then a decision might be forced upon them. Until then, it’s every man for himself, a dynamic that could be both thrilling for fans and potentially self-destructive for the team.

This internal battle is further complicated by growing scrutiny of Lando Norris’s performance. While undeniably fast, questions have been raised about his “racecraft” and his tendency to make critical errors under pressure. In contrast, Piastri, despite his relative inexperience, has had a remarkably clean season, with the exception of his messy weekend in Baku. “I think I’d take Piastri and Verstappen’s racecraft over Norris’s,” one analyst commented, pointing to a perceived hesitancy in wheel-to-wheel combat. These small but crucial differences are magnified under the intense spotlight of a championship fight.

The coming weeks will be a definitive test of character and skill for all involved. For Max Verstappen, it’s a chance to cement his legacy with one of the greatest comebacks F1 has ever seen. For McLaren, it’s a battle on two fronts: fending off a resurgent Red Bull while managing an intense internal rivalry that could either forge a champion or tear the team apart. The ball is in McLaren’s court. They hold the advantage, but in Formula 1, advantages can vanish in the blink of an eye. The world is watching to see if they will rise to the occasion or crumble under the pressure of an unthinkable threat.