Max Verstappen may have taken an impressive pole position ahead of the British Grand Prix, but that doesn’t mean he’s expecting a sudden turnaround of his season.
The driver confessed that he’s “not really in a battle” when it comes to the rest of the F1 2025 season — but that frees him up to focus on performing as well as he can at Silverstone.
Max Verstappen ‘not really in a battle’ with McLaren despite pole position
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
It’ll be Max Verstappen leading the F1 2025 field to the first corner when the lights go out at the British Grand Prix — a fact that came as a surprise to many considering the rapid pace of both Ferrari and McLaren during practice.
The reigning World Champion admitted that he struggled with both understeer and oversteer all weekend long, but that his Red Bull team was able to put his RB21 into pole form ahead of the final leg of qualifying.
Will Verstappen be able to convert that pole position to a victory? We won’t know until the checkered flag flies — particularly because there’s rain on the radar.
But there’s a certain freedom for the driver, as he has admitted he’s “not really in a battle” this weekend and can instead focus on his performance come race day.
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Speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com, after qualifying, Verstappen said his fast lap was “pretty good.”
“I mean, it was not easy out there, also, to just produce a consistent lap time, just because of the wind, the gusts as well that you got out there,” he admitted.d
“The car was moving around a lot, even just on the straight, so sometimes a bit unpredictable in places because of it.
“Luckily that last lap came came together quite nicely. Just had to commit a lot in high speed with this low downforce that we have on the car, which we just tried to build up on. Luckily in Q3 that that worked out.”
Friday practice saw Verstappen battling severe understeer that was paired with a dose of oversteer that made it near impossible for him to keep his car on the track ant at speed. Overnight, Red Bull tweaked the RB21’s rear wing in order to lower downforce, and it proved to be the right call.
“I think today, we definitely improved the understeer, and that just allowed me to push a bit more,” he explained, “because, I mean, understeer is slow, especially in F1, and so we just needed to try and minimize that.”
Asked where he was able to find the time during his final flying lap, the reigning champion responded, “Everywhere except the last sector. So every single corner a little bit.
“My first lap, I don’t know; it just felt really different to Q2. Just more oversteer, more understeer in places. That then made the lap not, let’s say, not amazing.
“But I never thought, of course, that I could find whatever it was; almost four tenths, I think? It worked, so I’m happy with that.”
Qualifying is one thing, but race day can be a completely different story — particularly if that threat of rain becomes a reality. But Verstappen has retained his confidence to “just go in there, try to do the best we can, naturally.”
That being said, he knows that a Grand Prix is a much different story from a one-lap dash to the top of the timing charts in qualifying.
“Normally in the race runs, we struggle a bit more on just tyre life, and I don’t know how that all will be tomorrow,” he explained.
“The straight line speed is nice, I think, to have, but still need to manage the tyres around here. You know, it’s very tough with all these high-speed corners, but I’m just looking forward to it.
“I mean, I’m not really in a battle, you know. So just try to have fun and try to get the best possible result.”
While the reigning champion has been very open about the fact that it would be a challenge for him to retain his streak of titles this season, the British Grand Prix seems to signal a turning point. After Verstappen was knocked out of the Austrian Grand Prix on the very first lap, the Dutch driver had no opportunity to chase down the McLaren drivers at the head of the championship.
As such, Verstappen’s 155 points puts him 61 points in arrears of championship leader Oscar Piastri, 46 points behind second-placed Lando Norris, and a mere nine points ahead of fourth-placed George Russell.
That being said, McLaren driver Lando Norris noted that Verstappen’s straight-line speed seems nearly untouchable when compared to that of the McLarens; he even went so far as to suggest that a McLaren using DRS could only just match the straight-line pace of Verstappen in his RB21.
It’ll all come down to that long-run pace and tyre management — but if weather becomes a factor, anything truly could happen.
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