Max Verstappen does not believe Red Bull has clawed back any performance over McLaren despite outscoring both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at the 2025 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman stood on the podium for the fifth time this season at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Sunday.
He followed winner George Russell to the chequered flag after a late-race Safety Car impeded the proceedings following an incident between the McLaren teammates on the pit straight.
The four-time World Champion started from the front row of the grid, but Russell got a better jump off the line from pole as Verstappen slotted in behind his W16.
This remained the case for the majority of the 70-lap race, and the Safety Car towards the end of the Grand Prix sealed the result.
When asked if the Safety Car had hindered his chances of going for the win, he told media including Motorsport Week, “No, not really to be honest.”
“I think, the first two stints I was struggling a lot with the tyres. Too much degradation again. So we drove quite a defensive race to be honest.
“Basically, two times Kimi was about to overtake me and we boxed so that worked out quite well for me. We did a very aggressive strategy… I think the last time, the last pitstop I was very worried about if I was going to make it to the end, like competitively because on the Hard tyres in the second stint I was already struggling as well.”
Verstappen says he ultimately lacked the pace in his RB21 to realistically challenge for the win.
“I think a lighter fuel load helped a bit but yeah, the gap wasn’t too big towards George but I didn’t really feel like I had the pace to do anything,” he explained.
“It was more about just looking in the mirror and try to maintain that gap, to look after my tyres and not over stress them. It was not the easiest race but I think, the team, we managed it well.”
That said, Verstappen seemed to have more pace in hand than the McLarens throughout the weekend. Even during Qualifying, the 27-year-old was able to stay clear of the MCL39s. Yet, he feels that Montreal was an outlier in terms of how the two teams stack up for out-and-out pace.
“I also think that this weekend… I wouldn’t say an off weekend but McLaren wasn’t as strong as normal and of course now we benefitted a little bit,” he added.
“But I think if we go to all the different tracks now coming up we definitely need more performance to even be close to them, you know. So, this has been a good weekend for us but we need more to be able to fight with them for the whole season.”
McLaren out of reach, says Verstappen
The result in Montreal sees the Dutchman slash his deficit to Oscar Piastri in the driver’s standings to 43 points. With more than half of the championship still to go, Verstappen is still in contention to retain his crown and bag a fifth consecutive world title.
Having said that, he isn’t too optimistic about catching up with the Woking-based team given the mammoth advantage they have held since the start of the season.
“There are small margins in this world that can give better results every single weekend but so far what McLaren has shown this season its quite extraordinary and difficult to beat,” he conceded.
“So, you know, now okay, one weekend is not as good but they are still by far the favorites and that’s not something that is easily beaten but the coming races still we are going to try and improve our car.”
Going into yet another European-leg of the season, Verstappen revealed that the Milton-Keynes based team is looking to bring upgrades on the RB21 but isn’t sure if they will be enough to breach the gap between itself and McLaren.
“Like I said before, we have our moments where maybe we can win here or there but yeah, we just need to make the car faster and then we’ll make it much easier for ourselves,” he asserted.
“We’re working very hard on it with the team [and] of course bits are coming but are they going to be enough? I don’t know.”
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