The quadruple world champion Max Verstappen will seek to snatch the head of the fight for the title of this season of Lando Norris from McLaren in Bahrain – and after Japan, this could be possible.
It is according to the former F1 driver who has become a ex-expert Sky Sports, Karun Chandhok, who argued that McLaren may have involuntarily strengthened the hopes of the driver of Red Bull.
McLaren’s “gift” to Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen
By winning the opening of the 2025 season in Australia, Lando Norris of McLaren took the lead in the ranking of the world championship far from Max Verstappen for the first time in 1029 days.
It was a fascinating swing in fortune; The Woking team became a shock competitor during season F1 2024 after the very first victory of the Norris Grand Prix in Miami, but even if McLaren won the title of the manufacturers, Verstappen never gave up its reach on the pilots.
Norris’ first advance in the F1 2025 championship signals the first stages of a paradigm shift … but not everyone will last. In particular after Verstappen filed a commanding victory last weekend in Japan.
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One of these people is Karun Chandhok, a former F1 driver Sky Sports. In fact, he would go so far as to say that McLaren gave Verstappen a gift in Japan.
“I got out of this slightly disappointed race that McLaren did not do something more aggressive strategically,” said Chandhok on Sky after the Japanese general practitioner.
During the event in Suzuka, low degradation conditions favored the notoriously difficult RB21, and Verstappen was able to take advantage of it by winning the race.
But Chandhok was particularly concerned that McLaren did not do something more exciting.
The Papaya team spent the whole race for the Verstappen sewing. He did not put one of his pilots on an exaggerated stop or counter-deputy strategy, and he did not give Piastri a boost at the Red Bull pilot hunting by exchanging it with Norris.
Thus, Verstappen won without too much challenge – and Chandhok was disappointed.
Regarding the strategy, he argued that McLaren should “go really daring, think really big and daring because psychologically, so that Max wins this race was powerful for Max and the Red Bull team in the battle of the world championship”.
We have seen it repeatedly; Verstappen is extremely able to make the most of the most difficult equipment, and when the conditions promote its machines, it is unstoppable.
Chandhok argued that McLaren did not really try to stop him either, which could point out to Red Bull – and to Verstappen – that the victories are there to take whatever the conditions.
That being said, Red Bull can expect a much more difficult weekend in Bahrain. The degradation of the tires should be quite high and the RB21 already has trouble under high conditions. But it would be stupid to underestimate the advantage of a psychological advantage by encouraging a driver like Verstappen to persevere.
Read then: Our daring predictions for the Bahrain Grand Prix
