Max Verstappen admits Red Bull problem for 2025 season ahead of fresh Lando Norris duel
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Max Verstappen admits he will not be the favourite for the 2025 Formula 1 title. The Dutchman is on a streak of four drivers' championship successes in a row. But the most recent of those was achieved despite Red Bull struggling for competitiveness in the second half of the 2024 season, which saw them miss out on the constructors' title.
While upgrades solved some of their problems, the RB20 still did not feel like the same machine as before to Verstappen. And, unless those issues can be ironed out over the winter, the 27-year-old thinks he will be an outsider in the title race this time around.
"I am not expecting us to go into next season as the favourite, but that's a good challenge, I like it," he told RacingNews365 . "We went into the 2024 season as favourites and maybe it is good for us as a team, like a little wake-up call like, 'Come on guys, we have to be on it'.
"It is a nice challenge to try and be back on top, because I think we're still not quick, but we are getting there and sometimes are able to win again. That is at least possible at the moment, and it is a good challenge over the winter to push on, learn from the mistakes, learn from what we learned in the season and how to optimise the car and find more performance.
"The car is getting better, it is still not fixed but we are getting on top of those things, and I'm sure that if we fully nail our issues, we can actually unlock a lot more performance out of the car. "I don't really think about [becoming a five-time champion] too much, I just want to enjoy it, see where we are in the beginning of the year and trust the team. They are going flat out at it, I gave my feedback and they know what I want from a car, and hopefully we can make it work.".
