Max Verstappen may have won the 2024 Championship with an underperforming car, but expecting him to do it again would be a stretch. As a result, Bas Schothorst, a Dutch F1 commentator, doesn’t have high hopes for this season.
The only reason Verstappen held on to win last year’s championship—despite McLaren having the fastest car for a large portion of the season—was the early lead he established when the RB20 was competitive. He won seven out of the opening ten races. Once McLaren, along with other Red Bull rivals like Ferrari, outdeveloped them, Verstappen too began to struggle, often complaining about balance issues in particular.
With two months left until the 2025 season begins, Schothorst expects Verstappen to struggle in the RB21 as well since it is an evolution of the RB20.
“To be honest, I don’t have much confidence in it,” Schothorst said per F1 Maximaal. “It is of course a further development of last year’s car. That was of course not a strong car in the second half of the season“.
Even Verstappen’s father, Jos, is worried, as Schothorst pointed out. This only strengthens his belief that Verstappen and Red Bull won’t taste much success in 2025.
After winning his fourth title in a row in 2024, can Verstappen equal the record held by Schumacher, in 2025? #F1 pic.twitter.com/lBoLKqFjbT
— Formula 1 (@F1) January 8, 2025
Experts like Nico Rosberg and James Hinchcliffe also believe that Lando Norris will be ready to seize the opportunity to grab his first-ever Drivers’ title this season. However, Red Bull won’t give up without a fight, especially considering Helmut Marko’s update on the team’s progress.
Marko claims one of Red Bull’s key weaknesses has been “solved“
For most of the second half of 2024, both Verstappen and Sergio Perez frequently raised concerns about the balance of the RB20, particularly how difficult it was to drive over the kerbs and on bumpy tracks. Marko now believes this problem is behind them if the simulator data is anything to go by.
“Driving over the kerbs was one of our weak points,” he said in an interview. “In the wind tunnel, those problems seem to have been solved, but we will see during the test in Bahrain“.
However, it’s important to note that Marko’s remarks should be taken with a pinch of salt, as data from simulators is not always entirely accurate. Even if what Marko claims is true, defending his title will be far from easy for Verstappen, given how much Red Bull’s rivals have improved.
Verstappen is aware of this, as he explained during the 2024 FIA Awards ceremony in Kigali, Rwanda. He stated that he expects the 2025 season to be “a proper fight” for him and Red Bull. “It does look like it’s going to be a proper fight between a lot of teams,” he said after collecting his fourth championship trophy.
