Max Verstappen gives up on his fading title defence following the 2025 Austrian GP, where a first-lap crash with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli took the four-time world champion out of contention.
The moment came at Turn 3 when the 18-year-old locked his rear wheels and clattered into the side of the Red Bull, leaving him with terminal damage as disaster struck the team at their home race.
Then as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri pushed each other to a 1-2 finish at the Red Bull Ring on July 29, all the defending champion could do is watch on from the sidelines as the gap in the drivers’ standings grew to 66 points.
It means if he hopes to match Juan Manuel Fangio by becoming a five-time world champion in this campaign, it’s a very tall order and in light of that gap and pace of the McLarens, Verstappen gives up on the title defence after the 2025 Austrian GP.
“We try to do our best, always,” Verstappen told Sky Sports F1. “My mentality doesn’t change.
“We’ve won a lot in the past. Sometimes you have to accept that you are not winning, and we just try to do the best that we can.”
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Verstappen added, of his title chances: “Hopefully then people will not mention it too much anymore.”
With the papaya-coloured cars already seeming out of reach, it appears as though the Dutchman’s run as the world champion is set to end after securing four titles beginning with that infamous 2021 season, including 54 wins, 39 pole positions and 75 podiums.
It also puts his position within the Red Bull team under jeopardy once again, as he has repeatedly insisted he is only interested in fighting for regular wins within the sport – whilst both Aston Martin and Mercedes lurk, ready to poach the star.
He may also consider retirement and to head to the World Endurance Championship, which could be an attractive prospect with a reduced schedule compared to Formula 1, one that would allow him to spend more time with his newborn daughter and family.
Verstappen reacts to Kimi Antonelli crash at 2025 Austrian GP
Crashing into the side of Max Verstappen usually puts you in his bad books, and the 27-year-old is not the kind of person to forget about that either. However, on Sunday he was surprisingly accepting of Antonelli’s mistake.
That’s perhaps because he didn’t expect to have the pace to fight for the win from seventh on the grid; especially as the two McLaren cars went on to finish an impressive 19.8 seconds in front of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, who finished third.
The true gap was likely even larger too. Leclerc spent the majority of the race in free air whilst Norris and Piastri raced each other wheel-to-wheel, and even had to deal with backmarker traffic that the Monegasque never managed to catch. A devastating sign for the rest of the year.
“It’s just unlucky, like yesterday in qualifying,” Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 of the Lap 1 crash. “But overall, we didn’t really have that great pace anyway this weekend.
“So a lot of learning for us how we can hopefully do better next weekend. But of course, not an ideal result today.”
