Formula 1: Articles & News Reports.

[Fortitude]

63 Points, Six Weekends: Verstappen Smells Blood.
Red Bull and Max Verstappen are back in this title fight. Andrea Stella isn’t one for hyperbole, but even he couldn’t downplay what’s become obvious over the last month.
October 12, 2025
Alex Albuquerque
FastestLap.com

Verstappen’s deficit to championship leader Oscar Piastri has shrunk from almost triple digits to 63 points thanks to a four-race run that reads like a statement: wins at Monza and Baku, second at Zandvoort, and another second on Sunday night in Singapore. And that last one mattered. Marina Bay has been a Red Bull bogey for years; this time, Verstappen chased George Russell to the flag and beat both McLarens on outright pace.

“They were competitive in Monza, very competitive. And then they were competitive in Baku,” McLaren team principal Stella said in Singapore. “We thought, let’s see if that depends on low drag and small rear wings, and if it can be repeated with big wings at high downforce. Here in Singapore, where they’ve struggled in the past, the evidence is they might have resolved both of these factors.

The timing is not subtle. Red Bull has fed a steady stream of upgrades onto the RB21 across these last races, ironing out the balance quirks that left Verstappen fighting the car through the first half of the season. Early spikes of form — think Suzuka and Imola — have become a consistent platform. Meanwhile, McLaren’s MCL39 has been relatively static as Woking’s gaze shifts increasingly to 2026. That’s not a criticism; it’s a championship reality. But it has given Verstappen a foothold with only six race weekends to go.

‘Verstappen Smells Blood’;

https://fastestlap.com/news/63-point...-smells-blood/


MAX PREVIEWS AUSTIN GP: 'WANT TO KEEP UP THE MOMENTUM'
15 October 2025
Niels Hendrix
Verstappen.nl

Max Verstappen is looking forward to the Grand Prix of Austin in Texas in the United States of America, the upcoming weekend. The Dutch Oracle Red Bull Racing driver says: “We made a positive step in Singapore. We have had a strong run of races recently and want to keep up the momentum and hopefully this weekend we can do a bit better. I have been back at the factory this week preparing on the sim and the team has been pushing really hard and we have been analysing where we can improve.”

Max adds: “This circuit is about finding the right compromise in setup between straight-line speed and downforce for the fast-sweeping corners and the bumps can always make things tricky too. Austin is a cool city and has great food so always a fun place to race at. It’s another sprint weekend, so we’ll have to get on top of things quickly as there is less time to fine tune things, but this will be a challenge for everyone.”

“Back at the factory this week preparing on the sim”;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/5975/


Villeneuve backs title outsider Verstappen for 'best championship yet'
14 Oct 2025
Ben Winship
GPblog.com

Jacques Villeneuve has backed Max Verstappen to win the 2025 Drivers Championship after closing the gap to the McLaren drivers in recent weeks. Speaking at a 75th anniversary event for F1 held in Italy, the 1997 world champion claimed Verstappen will overcome a 63 point gap to Oscar Piastri in the remaining six race weekends.

When asked who would win the 2025 Drivers Championship Villeneuve was quick to shout ‘Verstappen!’. He said: “And so it will be his best World Championship yet. Because the two McLarens are suffering too much under the pressure. They need to wake up.” With back-to-back wins in Italy and Azerbaijan, four-time world champion Verstappen has cut the gap to championship leader Oscar Piastri down from 97 points to 63 in the space of just four rounds.

‘Villeneuve was quick to shout “Verstappen!”’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/ville...ampionship-yet


Juan Pablo Montoya thinks Max Verstappen is playing a ‘terrifying’ game in 2025 title fight
13 October 2025
Tyler Rowlinson
F1 Oversteer

Red Bull were disappointed Verstappen did not win in Singapore as he came home second behind George Russell, who dominated the race. The 27-year-old was gunning for pole position, but he abandoned his final lap by the pit entry. Verstappen claimed that Norris impeded him with dirty air while entering the final two corners. For Juan Pablo Montoya, this is a ‘terrifying’ game that the Dutchman is playing to unnerve the McLaren drivers and create ‘tension’ amongst them.

“It’s terrifying that Max is playing that game and the only reason Max is playing that game is because he wants to pit the two McLaren drivers against each other and he’s very strategic,” he said via AS Columbia. “He’s not stupid. So he’s perfect and saying it in front of Oscar, right? Well, you weren’t a McLaren driver, the other one was the one who made me uncomfortable, do you understand me? To create that tension.”

“It wasn’t even visible, and it wasn’t even there. I’m telling you, if Lando was driving fast, opening up a gap very quickly, all the gap he’s opening up, because he’s going full speed, one says, ‘No, but he wasn’t even close enough for it to affect anything’. Well, where it would have affected Lando, he wouldn’t have been able to get as close as he got to Max in the race. Until Lando had problems when he got to a second or 1.3, something like that, but until then Lando had no problems and was much faster than Max. So, if you look at that and say, let’s say it’s not 1.3, but 2 and a half, 3 seconds, 3 seconds. Lando was ahead by 3 seconds, if you know what I mean.”

“It’s terrifying”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/jua...5-title-fight/


Schumacher predicts bleak future for McLaren, tips Verstappen for win
13 Oct 2025
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Ralf Schumacher has shared a grim prediction regarding the situation unfolding at McLaren, while also tipping Max Verstappen to take victory at the United States Grand Prix. The 50-year-old, who spoke on the Backstage Boxengasse podcast, was asked whether Zak Brown would soon have to decide who the team’s lead driver should be amid their title fight. Schumacher, however, stressed that while the McLaren CEO is unlikely to favour anyone, there might soon be a need for a decision as Verstappen closes in on both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

“I don’t think Zak has the kind of character that would make him prefer one driver over the other. I’ll put it this way – if Max really comes up again, really close, then you’d have to get involved. Otherwise, they’ll just let them race. I just hope it doesn’t come to a final bang. Somehow, I have the feeling that soon, the two of them might not make it out of the first corner.”

Ralf Schumacher continued stating that Verstappen could clinch another win at the Grand Prix in Austin, adding that McLaren’s dominance appears to be slipping away. “Then it becomes a problem, and Max Verstappen just wins there [in Austin]. The next race in Texas will be very good for Red Bull again, and it could be difficult once more for McLaren, who also seem to be slowly getting tense. Anyone who knows Andreas Stella knows that. I’d say the dominance is really gone now, and that’s something they don’t understand at all and can’t afford at this stage of the season.”

‘Grim prediction regarding the situation unfolding at McLaren’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/schum...tappen-for-win


Verstappen sets sights on Austin: 'We’re pushing hard to improve'
16 Oct 2025
Olly Darcy
GPblog.com

Red Bull's Max Verstappen hopes that his recent "strong run of races" will guide him towards the front at the United States Grand Prix. Coming into the sprint weekend in Austin, Verstappen sits on 273 points and P3 in the world championship, 63 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri on 336 points.

After his P2 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Verstappen tempered expectations after bringing himself back into the title discussion, warned his team that they "need to dominate" for the rest of the season if there was any chance of winning the title.

However, there is still a belief from some that the Dutchman will win his fifth world title in as many years, with 1997 champion Jacques Villeneuve backing the 27-year-old to finish top of the standings.

‘Verstappen sets sights on Austin’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verst...ard-to-improve

[Fortitude]

Stella opens up on McLaren 'repercussions' after Singapore fallout.
McLaren deemed Norris responsible for the incident, as he went slightly deep into Turn 3 and made contact with Verstappen’s rear, triggering a chain reaction that ultimately caught his teammate as well.
17 Oct 2025
Tobia Elia
GPblog.com

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella revealed how the team handled the incident between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris once the Singapore weekend was over. "We reviewed the case, we identified that Lando was responsible for the contact because he was a little long in corner 3, touched Verstappen and then he oversteered onto Oscar.”

"Obviously there was no malice in this move but both drivers accepted the review and we now head into the rest of the season like after Canada, even more united and stronger as a team. This is something that both drivers were keen to have in the racing framework. For me, it was part of leading the review — to discuss this without the drivers. They’ve been accepted, and we are now ready to focus on maximising the performance of the car and finding our winning ways again.”

‘McLaren deemed Norris responsible’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/stell...-piastri-clash


Oscar Piastri’s engineer reveals the ‘dangerous’ mood on his side of the McLaren garage
16 October 2025
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

It may only be Piastri’s third season in F1 – no driver has won a title so early since Lewis Hamilton in 2008 – but he has worked for around ’10 years’ to be in this position. Back in August, Juan Pablo Montoya said Piastri was starting to realise this could be his only chance. And Stallard says that reflects the mood inside his McLaren camp right now.

The Woking outfit will race with the highly-rated Mercedes engine next year and appear to have all the personnel required to sustain their dominance. But nothing is certain in F1, particularly in the context of major regulation changes. Stallard told ESPN: “Hopefully, we’ll be in the same position next year, but we definitely have that Olympic-every-four-years kind of feeling, that feeling that this is our chance. And that’s always a slightly dangerous thing to feel, because very much handling pressure is about doing what you’re good at, rather than delivering some magic.”

“And normally, when it looks like magic to the rest of the world, it’s actually just because you went out and did your thing. So we’ll be trying to do that. I think we’re both quite well placed to handle that pressure. You’re right in that the pressure is going to ramp up, but people say pressure is a privilege. That pressure is something that he’s worked for, for let’s say 10 years, arguably more, in order to be in a position where he can have that pressure. And it’s very rare that you get to be world champion without being able to ride that pressure. So, I think it comes with the territory, and we’re in the territory we want to be in.”

“Doing what you’re good at, rather than delivering some magic”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/osc...claren-garage/


Max Verstappen unfazed by new F1 position as world title fight heats up
For the first time as world champion, Max Verstappen is the hunter rather than the hunted in F1.
17 October 2025
Jake Nichol
RacingNews365

Max Verstappen is unfazed by acquiring a new position in the F1 title race, being the driver hunting rivals down as opposed to the hunted. Analysing the new situation, the Dutchman explained that he would simply do his best and try to achieve the best possible results for his Red Bull team.

Asked for his chances of winning the title, Verstappen told media, including RacingNews365, "50-50, you either win it or you don’t. This car is a bit different to the previous one, so it’s not a guarantee that it works everywhere. I prefer to just look at it race by race. We’ll try to do our best here and then move on and see what we get."

‘Max Verstappen unfazed’;

https://racingnews365.com/max-versta...fight-heats-up


Can Verstappen catch McLaren duo? He rates his chances
17/10/2025
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

With the 2025 Formula 1 season hurtling toward its climax, Max Verstappen is clawing his way back into the Drivers’ Championship fray, rating his shot at dethroning McLaren contenders Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris as a straight "50/50" gamble.

Just four races ago, the Red Bull ace trailed Piastri by a daunting 104 points, but a blistering resurgence –capped by successive wins in Monza and Baku, plus a strong P2 in Singapore – has slashed the deficit to 63 points behind Piastri and a more manageable 41 from Norris. With 174 points still dangling over six nail-biting rounds, including three Sprint weekends, the Dutch maestro heads to Austin's Circuit of The Americas brimming with calculated optimism, while taking his task one race at a time.

“We’ll try, for sure,” he said, when asked about his prospects of overhauling his papaya rivals. “The last three weekends have been very nice – some a bit better than others. I still think that in Singapore we didn’t maximise the potential of the car, but you analyse everything and try to do better. That’s what we’ll try to do again here. It’s a great track to drive, a Sprint weekend is always a bit hectic… I’m just curious to see what we can do.”

“We’ll try, for sure”;

https://f1i.com/news/550803-can-vers...s-chances.html


Charles Leclerc fires back at Ferrari F1 exit rumours with blunt response
Charles Leclerc rebuffs speculation linking him with a Ferrari exit after 2026, calling the rumours “annoying” and insisting his focus is on winning
17 October 2025
John Smith

Charles Leclerc has shut down mounting speculation that he could leave Ferrari when his contract expires in 2026, describing reports about his potential exit as unfounded and “annoying.” “What I can say is what I’ve always said, and that’s very clear,” Leclerc told the media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “I’ve always loved Ferrari so much and my only obsession at the moment is to win in red, whether it’s now or in the future. And I want to bring back Ferrari to the top.”

“There are lots of speculations around me, but just in general around the team for whatever reason,” Leclerc added. “I feel like there are too many people speaking things not coming from actual facts, and it’s just a little bit annoying. It’s always been like that. And I think as a driver, but also as a team, we’ve just got to focus on our things, which is what we are doing. It’s not super nice to see all these things around the team all the time.”

“It’s definitely not a situation we want to be in, in a way that the performance is not at the level where we want to be,” Leclerc said. “But we are all focused on trying to turn that situation around. Whenever the results aren’t there, there are always those rumours that come back — but what I say today is what I’ve said in the past six or seven years with the team.”

‘Blunt response’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/cha...ours-response/


Russell on lucrative Mercedes deal : ‘Toto could have been tighter’
17/10/2025
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

“I'm really happy to be continuing,” George Russell said in Austin on Thursday. “The truth is if every single seat was available for next year and I could choose any single team to race for, I believe Mercedes is my best chance of winning the championship next year. And for me, it's more about winning than it is about money or sponsor days or anything. I want to win and this is what I'm fighting for, so that is the long and short of it.”

“I think it always just comes down to performance, I think, for any driver,” he said. “At least for myself, what allows me to sleep well at night is knowing that my performances are strong and that is what will keep you in the sport as any driver. Our intention and my goal is to continue with Mercedes indefinitely, and we're here to focus on winning in 2026.”

“But I think he really recognises that you need to reward those who are delivering, who are putting in the effort and delivering those results on track. That's why I'm sort of here with a smile on my face because I'm very happy with the offer. That's the bonus, but the main goal for me is a fast race car.”

Toto could have been tighter’;

https://f1i.com/news/550799-russell-...n-tighter.html